Women bank's troubles are over after forensic audit, Minister
Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu
What you need to know:
The Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu said in Parliament this morning that things have started to change at TWB since the appointment of a new board of directors and the new managing director.
Dodoma. The government has conceded that the Tanzania Women Bank (TWB) was going through troubled waters during the past few months, noting however that the problems are now over.
The Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu said in Parliament this morning that things have started to change at TWB since the appointment of a new board of directors and the new managing director.
"We underwent some troubles. We conducted a forensic audit and now things are improving. The new board is in place and TWB's new managing director is a very dynamic young man," she said.
Ms Mwalimu was responding to an auxiliary question from Ms Josephine Chagula (Special Seats -CCM) who wanted to know why the government-owned TWB has branches in Dar es Salaam alone while most women are in rural areas.
"When will TWB - which was established to serve women - open upcountry branches?" she inquired.
According to Ms Mwalimu however, though TWB has only two branches in Dar es Salaam, its services are also available in 20 more regions where they are being undertaken through offices of municipal/district councils.
She said after making the necessary management changes, TWB is bow looking forward to receiving capital boost from the Treasury before it opens branches upcountry.
Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji advised women in rural areas to start making use of mobile phone and agent banking services if they are to get their much-needed loans.
According to Dr Kijaji, the government is no longer directly involved in the setting up financial institutions since the country embarked on reforming the financial sector since 1990s.
She said, this means that the duty of expanding financial services across the country was left to commercial banks which only open branches after conducting thorough researches on the feasibility of the same.
She was responding to a principal question from Ms Chagula who wanted to the government's role in ensuring that women in rural areas are able to get access to financial services.
