Women’s bank reduces lending rate by 7 per cent

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Women’s Bank (TWB) has cut its lending rate from 19 to 12 per cent.

The aim is to enable more businesswomen to borrow funds from the bank, the  minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, said yesterday.

The government owns 97 per cent of shares while the private individuals and entities have 3 per cent stake in the bank.

Ms Mwalimu said the new rate would start in the next two months.  She was speaking during the handover of 77 sewing machines from the Kuwait Embassy in the country to Mivinjeni Vocational Training Centre  at Buguruni in Ilala District.

Ms Mwalimu said since TWB was established, the government had been doing everything in its powers to ensure women benefit from  it.

According to her, starting this year, the lending rate will be lower than those pegged by other commercial banks.

She added that the new interest rate would go together with the establishment of a special window for extending loans to small businesswomen who have no collateral.

“We want to ensure that the bank is meaningful to women. We are going to establish a special window for women who take loans of between Sh200,000 and Sh1 million. They will get the money without collateral. We have been witnessing a lot of women seeking small amounts of money, risking millions worth of property,” said Ms Mwalimu.

Handing over the sewing machines, the Kuwait ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Jasem Alnajem, said the support aimed at enabling women to generate incomes.

“Our aim is to support women and Tanzanians at large. We are also focusing on strengthening our bilateral ties,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Ummy promised to construct a health centre for Mivinjeni Ward.

The area does not have a health centre. In April last year,  cholera broke out at the ward.