NMB lends public, private sectors Sh4tr in four years

Dar es Salaam. NMB Bank Plc has issued a total of Sh4 trillion in loans to public and private bodies in the past four years, making it one of the major players in Tanzania’s economic development endeavours.

The amount translates into 31 percent of the Sh12.78 trillion development budget for the current financial year.

Bu, it is slightly lower than the Sh5.23 trillion budgeted for development expenditure for the ministries of Energy as well as that of Works, Transport and Communication, according to the available figures.

The NMB Bank’s chief of Wholesale Banking, Mr Alfred Shao, said at the weekend that the Sh4 trillion includes Sh2 trillion which has been loaned to the private sector - and part of which directly goes to support the government’s industrialisation drive.

He told Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa at the 44th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) that the Sh4 trillion also includes Sh800 million issued in loans to the agricultural sector and its value chain.

“In this area, crops that benefited the most from this lending were cotton, cassava, pyrethrum, coffee and cashew nuts,” he said.

He said Sh1.2 trillion of the Sh4 trillion has been directly injected into the financing of the implementation of the government’s mega projects.

“The strategic projects supported by NMB Bank include those to do with power generation, water supply and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR),” Shao noted.

In his remarks, Mr Majaliwa commended the NMB Bank’s acting managing director, Ms Ruth Zaipuna, for the bank’s financing of national development initiatives and sectoral productive activities.

He said Ms Zaipuna’s unique leadership and excellent management of one of the country’s leading financial institutions has made her one of the four Tanzanian executives whose support the government recognises and regards highly.

“It is for all these reasons your managing director is one of the six public and corporate entity leaders whose work and support the government recognizes and appreciates in its endeavour to serve Tanzanians and bring real development to the country,” Mr Majaliwa told NMB Bank workers at the 44th edition of the DITF, which is popularly known as ‘Saba Saba.’

“Go tell her that we know and see what she is doing, which is a great job appreciated by this government. Her good performance clearly shows that indigenous Tanzanians can also be good corporate leaders,” he added, noting that NMB was indeed a true Tanzanian bank due to its worthy service to the nation, including the remotest parts of the country where majority people live.

Financing by lenders such as the NMB, coupled with efforts by the government and other stakeholders, have played a pivotal role in raising the status from a Least Developed Country into a Lower Middle Income country (LMIC).

Tanzania officially graduated into a LMIC on Wednesday, July 1 this year, after decades of sound economic growth rates.

Tanzania’s economy has been growing at a rate of between six and seven percent for over 25 years to effectively raise the country’s per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to LMIC status.

The World Bank definescountries’ economic status depending on the levels of their Gross National Incomes (GNI).

GNI is the total amount of money earned by a nation’s people and businesses. It is used to measure and track a nation’s wealth from year to year.

The number includes the nation’s gross domestic product plus the income it receives from overseas sources.

GNI is an alternative to GDP as a means of measuring and tracking a nation’s wealth and is considered a more accurate indicator for some nations.

For the World Bank’s 2021 fiscal year, low-income economies are defined as those with a GNI per capita of $1,035 or less in 2019.

On the other hand, lower middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita of between $1,036 and $4,045 while upper middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $4,046 and $12,535.