The Mwanga Rural Community Bank Limited (MRCB) has posted a Tshs 166 million pre-tax profit as its Tanzania banking sector from its operations as of December 31, 2008.
According to a recently released statement from the MRCB, the deposits from its customer base also increased from Tshs 3.6 billion in the previous fiscal year, to Tshs 4.5 billion for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2008.
In addition to this growth, during this same time the MRCB also posted a growth in the bank’s total assets from Tshs 4.2 billion during the 2007 fiscal year to the most recently assessed Tshs 5.5 billion.
This increase in the bank’s assets also serves to indicate an increase in the company’s loans and advances portfolio, which had reached Tshs 3.8 billion, including Tshs 1.2 billion in investments with other banks, as of December 2008.
Overall, since the launch of the MRCB in 2000 and in spite of the relatively poor economic environment in which the bank is located, the bank has recorded a significant pattern of growth in its assets, deposits, equity, loans and profit.
In response to the bank’s strength and growth, the Managing Director for the MRCB, Abby Ghuhia, told the Guardian that the bank faced some challenges, including poor economic growth in the district as a whole.
“The district has low savings growth which affect our deposit growth as compared to credit demand,” said Mr. Ghuhia, “We face stiff competition with other financial institutions.
However, with this in mind, Mr. Ghuhia went on to say that the bank had been established with a full understanding of the economic environment of its surrounding community and it was, therefore, more prepared to face these challenges.
“Due to its business market foresight, customer care, modern banking operating system and fast decision making conducive to the rapid changing business environment it is able to utilize available resources for growth,” said Mr. Ghuhia, “We prepared our business plan taking into consideration our economic environment and our ability to integrate with the Mwanga community in offering various financial services.”
In addition, Mr. Ghuhia indicated that he was pleased with the amount of cooperation that the district administration had demonstrated in utilizing the resources that were available and in offering various development opportunities, such as a credit financing program.
Finally, the Chairman for the MRCB Board of Directors, Elisante Banduka urged residents of the Mwanga district as well as neighboring districts to invest in the bank through the purchase of shares.
“I just want to appeal to the residents of Mwanga and those in other regions such as Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Tanga, Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza and Mbeya to invest by buying more shares from the bank,” said Mr. Banduka.
