President Samia hails CRDB for its corporate social investment

Zanzibar. The President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan has praised CRDB Bank Plc’s recent crusade to contribute to the socio-economic development.

The President has made such uplifting remark during the climax of the coveted Kizimkazi festival that saw completion of medical staff houses and Kizimkazi Dimbani ward office projects that were funded by the bank, handed over before her.

President Samia has further asserted that the government is proud having been in a lengthy development ties with the CRDB bank as she was devolved a Sh300 million worth projects. The upbeat President in similar tone, with CRDB seemed to have won her heart already too often in social corporate endeavors, she has placed the country’s largest lender on top of the Private—Public Partnerships (PPP)’s pecking order particularly in attaining the set goals of Tanzania Development Vision by 2025.

“Building this nation has neither been an individual nor government’s mission, I should take this chance to applaud CRDB Bank for taking on initiatives to solve challenges face com-munities. You have made us all proud for supporting health sector by making sure Kizimkazi Dimbani residents access to better social services, it is plain to see that you are real definition of a partisan bank,” ended President Samia.

On different occasion, President Samia heaped praise on successful Kizimkazi festival 2021 edition which mainly focused on encouraging communities to promote their culture and increase economic inclusion to the people by displaying untapped, available Tanzanian cultural opportunities. The festival featured trainings to more than 500 entrepreneurs on natural products innovation, financial literacy, business management and other different traditional games.

She also calls for the Tanzanian natives to stop embracing foreign cultures to salvage their own. Upon that calling, the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports was urged to provide cognitive education on the importance of preserving and cherishing local culture.

On the other note, she says that communities should be encouraged to take part in diverse cultural festivities in an effort to help pro-mote and sustain cultural and artistry systems in Tanzanian context.

“This bank has shown by vivid example that if we immensely invest in culture, we shall unlock as many economic opportunities by creating a steady domestic market for cultural and artistic products. Through this Kizimkazi Festival, I ask the respective ministry from now onward to forge strategies to establish the likes of the cultural festivities in every zone, with this deem a potential move towards promoting cultures of various places and stimulating tourism,” emphasizes Madame President.

Apart from the head of the state, the CRDB Bank’s Group CEO and Managing Director, Abdulmajid Nsekela was another figure who delivered a moving speech. He says that organising and hosting of such high-profile festival – which previously was known as “Samia Day”— it is a continued bank’s policy of socially corporate investment whereby 1 percent of bank’s profit is directed towards lending a helping hand to the needy communities through dedicated innovative empowerment programs.

He further said that the bank is looking to more cooperation with government in building an inclusive economy and, optimistically be of the opinion that, culture is a salient aspect to be heavily invested, should the country improve individual’s earnings and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Putting aside a mixed connotations of the term ‘culture’ by many, as a partisan lender, we believe that; culture is an entrepreneurship, culture is tourism, culture is an employment, culture is part of economy,” adds Nsekela.

Also, Nsekela said that the bank is committed to share its support with both parts of the glorified country’s union and so escalates national development. Speaking about the bank’s recent contributions to grow Zanzibar’s isles economically, he said within the half of 2021, the bank has disbursed Sh150 billion in support of different developmental sectors, and that is to align with Zanzibar’s blue economy agenda.

Unfolding to the President Samia of the bank’s biggest move, Nsekela blows his own trumpet by being the ‘bank of example’ following its strides in boosting Zanzibar Revolutionary government’s revenue collection.

“The year 2014, the bank made remarkable overhaul by integrating its electronic revenue collection system with that of Zanzibar Immigration Department, whereas the revenues shot up by 600 percent after a month,” elaborates Nsekela.

The confident CRDB Bank’s chief also made a promise to the President that through its compelling slogan of “We Are Ready” will continue cooperate with the government and other development partners to attain the envisaged country’s development vision by 2025.Apart from entrepreneurial training conducted by the bank, sanitation, diverse sports and games contests such as; soccer, volleyball, playing cards, coconut peeling and husking, board game, tug of war, shomoo and Qur’an recitation were part of the festival.Over and above that, residents had a chance to be vaccinated at Kizimkazi Dimbani Mji Mpya grounds, an exercise that were led by the Minister of Health, Social Welfare, Elderly, Gender and Children of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government, Ahmed Nassor Mazrui.

About CRDB Bank

CRDB Bank is one of the leading banks in the East African region, providing services to small, medium and large clients including private customer service, treasury services, insurance services, business loans, agriculture and empowerment for small entrepreneurs.

CRDB Bank is the first bank in Tanzania to be recognized by international research firm Moody’s Investors Service as one of the 10 most stable and secure banks in Africa in investment. Moody’s has awarded CRDB Bank a B1-level firm which is the highest grade available to banks and financial institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

CRDB Bank has been recognized by the UN Green Climate Fund since 2019 and has also been recognized as the best bank in Tanzania by Global Finance magazine for 2020.CRDB Bank has become an important business link in Tanzania and Burundi by serving more than 3 mil-lion customers and through a wider network of 246 branches, more than 19,000 CRDB agencies, 550 ATMs, 1,800 POS machines and a Customer Service Center providing services 24/7.

About Kizimkazi Festival

Kizimkazi Festival officially started in 2016 codenamed as ‘SAMIA DAY’ soon after Samia Suluhu Hassan nominated as co-candidate of departed Magufuli, in 2015.

By that time Samia, being an outgoing Member of Parliament for Makunduchi Constituency, made a farewell visit to CCM members at Makunduchi Constituency branches.The visit ended in the CCM K/ Mkunguni Branch where she was a member. At the farewell session, members and members of the K/ Mkunguni Ward Council requested President Samia to agree to arrange a special day for the official farewell to her CCM branch.

The ceremony was held in the second week of August 2015, and due to the great success of the celebrations, President Samia suggested that every August, Kizimkazi members should meet to reflect on the progress made and the challenges facing them in order to find solutions and bring about their development.

From August 2016, the celebrations were first dubbed ‘Samia Day’ and the Samia Day Special Committee was formed which oversaw the ceremony which was held in Kizimkazi Mkunguni until 2018 where it was rebranded as ‘Kizimkazi Day’, and started involving citizens from Kizimkazi Dimbani in some games and boat races.

Over the years the festival continued to grow, involving more wards including Palm, Button and Muyuni, as the Madame President’s vision of Kizimkazi to refer to places of Kibuteni, Kizimkazi Dimbani and Kizimkazi Kikunguni.