ACCESS Bank marked five years of operations in the country with over 25,000 beneficiaries getting loans and at least 100,000 deposit accounts opened.

"We have been able to grow a loan portfolio by 100 per cent between 2011 alone and 2012, and 56 per cent in 10 months in 2012, thanks to our customers good repayment behaviour," said Mr Roland Coulon, Access Bank Tanzania Chief Executive Officer in a statement.

He said Access Bank offers microloan, SME loans, personal savings accounts, Elimu accounts, Mikakati accounts, joint accounts, time deposits, current accounts, US dollar accounts, ATM services, Western Union and M-Pesa services.

He saluted all its esteemed customers, shareholders, business associates, government, Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the general public for the their confidence and support, factors which he said, enabled the financial institution to post successful results in five years of operation.

"Access Bank is committed to its vision and mission of providing appropriate financial services to the majority of Tanzanians especially the low income earners," he said. He added: "Our targeted clientele is mainly constituted of people who do not access financial services from the regular commercial banks with the aim to become their home bank."

He said the bank fulfills its mission to support the social development of the country due to its strong corporate culture based on recruitment and training of fresh students from colleges and universities.

For example, he said, in five years the bank has managed to hire and develop about 500 strong professionals to serve its customers. He said next year, Access Bank is planning to open branches upcountry, starting with Mwanza, in early January.

"This will make a total of eight branches and plans are also on board to develop an agro loan product, introduce various mobile banking services for the clients to transact more conveniently", he said.