The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Bethuel Kinyori
26 August 2008
Five more community banks (CBs) are set to open countrywide by mid next year, the banks' association has revealed.
Community Banks Association (CBA) board chairman Abby Ghuhia said the new banks include the Tandahimba Community Bank in Mtwara region whose operations will commence in December this year.
Others, but still at the funding stage, are the Meru Community Bank in Arusha, Morogoro Community Bank, Singida Yetu Community Bank and Njombe Community Bank.
Mr Ghuhia, who is also the managing director of Mwanga Community Bank, was speaking at the association's annual general meeting last Friday.
"These banks will serve as vital catalysts to reduce poverty in communities they will be operating as well as contributing to the national economy," he said.
The first community bank to be established in the country was the Kilimanjaro Cooperative Bank Ltd, which was opened in 2006. Currently, there are seven CBs in the country.
Community banks are restricted to specified geographical areas, and members of the association said at the meeting the financial institutions were crucial to spearhead community development.
They said there was need to increase their numbers due to their strategic role in providing microfinance in rural areas shunned by large commercial banks.
Studies have shown that community banks serve the poor better than big banks with some CBs even outperforming big foreign owned financial institutions.
For instance, a recent banks performance study conducted by Ernst & Young showed that the Dar es Salaam Community Bank was the second most productive bank in the country last year. On the other hand, the Mwanga and Uchumi community banks ranked top as most efficient non-commercial banking institutions.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Citizen. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
