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Govt to sell NMB shares
2007-05-25 08:57:41
By Guardian Reporter
Minister for Finance Zakia Meghji announced in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the government would soon sell to members of the public 21 out of the 51 percent shares it owns in the National Microfinance Bank (NMB).
Minister Meghji, who could not disclose the exact date for the sale, said, however, that exercise would start `very soon.`
She said the government`s move was calculated at enabling more people to own shares and improve their economic status.
Minister Meghji spoke a few minutes before the NMB handed over a 4.08bn/- cheque for dividends payable to the government.
The other shareholders who also received dividends with the amount in brackets included Rabobank (2.5 bn/-), NICO (475.2m/-), Exim Bank (417m/-) and the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture-TCCIA (122.4 m/-).
The minister, who commended NMB for a job well done, said it never happened in the past for a parastatal or bank to pay dividends to the government.
`Instead, all the time the government had to dig deep into its coffers for money to finance parastatals which were already in the Intensive Care Unit,` she jokingly recalled.
She said this was quite encouraging, as the trend was now changing. She said that last year, the government received 2.5bn/- as dividends and this year, it had once again pocketed 4.08bn/-.
Minister Meghji also hailed the bank for paying teachers` salaries on the 23rd of each month as had been agreed
with the government.
She said there were no grievances from teachers nowadays.
The minister also commended the bank for concerted efforts made in establishing new tailor-made products and urged it to continue with its endeavours.
Earlier, the NMB Board Chairman, Misheck Ngatunga while inviting the minister, said in his remarks that 2006 was another impressive year of performance.
Ngatunga said the bank registered a pre-tax profit of 46.7bn/- and managed to pay out 11.6bn/- as corporate tax to government coffers.
He said the NMB realized 35.07bn/- as net profit, out of which the board recommended to allocate 8bn/- as dividends to be paid to shareholders.
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