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CRDB Bank lines up 300m/- for community projects
2008-03-25 09:12:22
By A Correspondent, Arusha
CRDB Bank Limited vows will continue to support government efforts to improve education in the country as part of its corporate investment strategy; it`s managing director Dr Charles Kimei said in Arusha recently.
He said last year alone his bank spent over 300m/- in various projects focusing on areas such as education, health and youths.
Dr Kimei was speaking at Leganga Primary School in Arumeru District where the Bank has sponsored the construction of a classroom.
During the ceremony that was part of activities that accompanied the opening of a CRDB Bank branch at Usa River, the guest of honour Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning Jeremiah Sumari led various dignitaries to lay the foundation of the classroom.
They included Arusha Regional Commissioner Isidori Shirima and the Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Dr. James Wanyancha.
Before the building activity, Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Dr. Wanyancha mobilised the public who had attended the event to support CRDB Bank efforts. Over 1m/- was raised on the spot. In addition, the guest of honour also pledged 5m/-.
Speaking at the ceremony, minister Jeremiah Sumari said the second phase of the financial sector reforms would focus on increasing productivity in agriculture and industries and giving full support to the small and medium enterprises.
He said procedures for securing loans would be eased, especially for local enterprises and individual business people.
The aim, he emphasised, was to improve agricultural and industrial production which are key to the national economy and which have not done well despite liberalisation of the economy.
Sumari said young entrepreneurs in Tanzania and individual business people must be empowered with bank loans and other incentives to enable them boost production.
He told a large gathering, partly his previous voters to use the bank to improve their lives by saving and applying for loans. Sumari is an Arumeru East legislator where Usa River is located.
He said the liberalisation of the banking sector in the 1990s has seen more banks getting their operations concentrated in urban areas, serving mainly the corporate clients and big businesses.
However, he singled out CRDB Bank, saying it was one of the few financial institutions that had identified themselves with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small businesses, especially in the rural areas.
``Few banks in the country have been much closer to the ordinary people like CRDB Bank`` he said after unveiling the bank branch located along the Arusha-Moshi highway at Usa River township.
The deputy minister said the Bank was a reliable loan facility in the country because it was serving a vast network of savings and credit cooperative societies (Saccos).
The bank has over 11,000 shareholders and has extended loans totaling 16bn/- in the last few years.
CRDB Bank’s Usa River becomes the first bank branch to be established in Arumeru, the most populous district in Arusha region, with a growing number of tourist lodges, commercial farms and educational institutions, including English-medium academies.
Before that, residents of the area and much of Meru East had to travel to Arusha - some 25 km away - or to Kilimanjaro region in order to deposit or withdraw money or for other banking services.
Earlier, CRDB managing director said several new branches would be opened soon at Babati, Korogwe, Geita, Zanzibar, Tarime, Mbozi, Mbinga, Tarime and other areas after which the bank will have 70 branches country-wide.
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