Tanzania Banking Leader Reports Increase in Gross Profit

One of the leaders in the Tanzania banking sector, the National Finance Bank (NMB), has recently announced an increase in their gross profit by 22 per cent from their 2007 performance.

In 2007, the bank posted a pre-tax profit of Tshs 57.9bn from its operations, but announced last week in a statement that was issued in Dar es Salaam that its pre-tax profit from last year was up to Tshs 70.9bn.

Overall, the bank recorded a net profit of Tshs 48.7bn in 2008, which is an increase from its net profit during the previous year of Tshs 38.8bn.

The NMB has given modernization and expansion of its branch networks into several rural areas as reasons to account for the recent trend towards the increasing strength of its position in the market.

In addition, the NMB reported that its commercial lending net of provisions increased by 65 per cent in the last year from Tshs 345bn to Tshs 570bn.

“For the first time income from commercial lending has surpassed other income, which is in line with the bank’s strategy to direct its funds to assist its customers,” said the bank in a statement, “As more and more Tanzanians now open accounts with NMB, the bank’s customer deposits grew to 1.2trillion/- from 1.012trillion/- in 2007, bringing the overall balance sheet total to 1.384trillion/-, up from 1,158trillion/- in 2007.”

According to the NMB Board of Directors Chairman, Misheck Ngatunga, in a recent report by the Daily News, “The shareholders of NMB can be very pleased with the bank’s financial results, especially in its first year of being listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.”

Mr. Ngatunga went on to say that he believed that the bank had successfully moved ahead in its development goals of becoming a broad retail and wholesale bank for all Tanzanians.

“During the year, the focal point was modernization and broadening of the bank’s distribution outlets through opening of new rural branches and rollout of ATMs” said Mr. Ngatunga, “NMB is the largest bank in Tanzania with a network of 128 branches and 172 ATMs throughout the country.”

In addition, Mr. Ngatunga indicated that the bank was planning to continue expanding into Tanzania in order to reach out to the people who were currently not receiving banking services. 

To this end, Mr. Ngatunga indicated that the bank was looking to open additional branches this year as well.

According to Ben Christiaanse, the NMB Chief Executive Officer, in the same report by the Daily News, to date the NMB has proudly served over 1 million customers and welcomed over 1,000 new customers every day.

“The bank’s results for 2008 reflect the good job done by the Board, management and our staff throughout the country and the confidence placed in NMB by its customers,” said Mr. Christiaanse, “We remain confident that the development of NMB will continue in the coming year for the benefit of its customers, shareholders and staff.”