National Microfinance Bank (NMB) has approved about 25bn/- in dividend to its shareholders (an equivalent of 50/- per share) during its annual general meeting held in Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

A press statement issued by the bank yesterday said the earning per share for the bank improved from 108m/- in 2010 to 144m/- last year.

The annual general meeting also approved the appointment of Prof Joseph Semboja as the incoming non executive director nominated by the government to replace Misheck Ngatunga, who served at a similar capacity for the last nine years.

Presenting the progress made in 2011 the Bank’s Chief The bank’s chief executive officer, Mark Wiessing, said they have further developed their ability to deliver financial services to chosen wholesale and retail customer segments.

He said in 2011 the bank grew the branch network to over 141, ATM cards with over 1.4 million cards in circulation and the growth of customer base to over 1.7 million.

According to him, the ATM network grew to 450 machines nationwide and mobile services reached over 600,000 active accounts.

The CEO clarified that in the money markets, treasury bills and treasury bonds remained on the high side.

Despite the adverse impact of increase in domestic inflation combined with number of other factors such as load shedding, the bank’s profit before tax grew to 102bn/- and profit after tax reached 72bn/-

“Strong loans and advances, and transactional volume growth were the main contributors to these results,” he noted.

According to him, the bank will continue its efforts to further improve customer services through its entire channel, while continuing to control costs and manage credit and other risks.

Apart from its core business, the bank places a great importance to corporate social responsibility, he said, adding that in the recent years, it has taken its CSR role seriously and has endeavoured to contribute 1 percent of the profit after tax to worthy causes in the community.

For his part, the outgoing NMB Board Chairman Ngatunga, said the bank has developed significantly during the last nine years.

“I have watched it evolve from an institution with a limited mandate to become a fully fledged commercial bank, leading the market in many areas and making a significant contribution to the Tanzanian economy and tax revenue,” he said.