By Zacharia Osanga, The Citizen Correspondent
Dar es Salaam. The Dar es Salaam Community Bank is finalising plans to transform into a commercial bank, the board chairman Paul Rupia said yesterday. DCB, which is listed at the Dar es Salaam Stock market since 2008, started operations in 2002 as a microfinance bank serving the people of the city.

Its main shareholders are Kinondoni, Ilala and Temeke municipalities, the Unit Trust of Tanzania and individual investors. Mr Rupia said the bank wants to become a fully fledged commercial bank in order to implement its growth strategies, which mainly entails expanding the network to other regions.

“DCB’s capital has increased to Sh14.5 billion, which is way beyond the minimum capital for a commercial bank and it therefore qualifies us to become a full fledged bank, a process which will allow them to open branches out of Dar es Salaam,” he said. By becoming a commercial bank, DCB would also be able to offer more banking products to its customers.

The bank has already started reorganisation of its operations by creating more departments including the treasury, import and export, SMEs, and corporate, which would cater for large customers and municipalities.

For his side the bank’s CEO, Mr Edmund Mkwawa, said the bank’s portfolio reached Sh60 billion for the year 2011. The loans were given to about 60,000 individuals, 2,000 groups.
“The bank has also Sh78.8 billion deposits from about 104,415 customers, 78 per cent of whom are women,” Mr Mkwawa said.

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