By Damas Makangale, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania leading
commercial bank, CRDB has said that the introduction of the national
Identification Card (ID) will reduce the cost of doing business in the
financial services across the country.
Speaking to the East
African Business week, the bank’s Managing Director, Dr Charles Kimei said that
identifying potential borrowers will help the bank assess risks and costs on
individual basis and determine the creditworthiness of each borrower. This will
make loans more accessible to citizens.
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| CRDB Bank Managing Director, Dr. Charles Kimei speaking |
He said that this is
because the use of new national identification (ID) cards will offer true and
accurate source of customers’ information.
However, he noted
that it was costly to certify all loan applicants to ensure CRDB lends money to
the right people.
Although lenders have
often to verify something as simple as residency by resorting to home and
business visits, and even then they are met with malpractices by some who pose
as business owners.
That is why the cost
of loans has remained high and passed on to borrowers to mitigate risks
associated with the lending environment.
But with the new IDs
the cost of registering new customers as well as lending will fall and more rural
population will access bank loans for expanding agri-business.
National
Identification Authority, Director General, Dickson Maimu urged citizens to
provide accurate and true information that would help in accessing the
multiplicity of services from various providers.
CRDB Bank Plc is
leading, wholly-owned private commercial bank in Tanzania. The Bank was
established in 1996 and has grown and prospered over the years to become the
most innovative, first choice, and trusted bank in the country.
CRDB Bank has been
recording progressive profit every year since its foundation and has paid
dividends annually.
The Bank’s shares
were listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange on 17th of June, 2009. It has
two subsidiaries, CRDB Microfinance Services Ltd and CRDB Bank Burundi S.A in
Burundi.
The bank provides
commercial banking services to individuals, small-to-medium sized businesses
and large corporations. As of December 2013, CRDB Bank's total assets were
valued at approximately US$2.154 billion (TZS: 3.6 trillion).
In September 2013,
the bank's shareholders' equity stood at about US$223.6 million (TZS: 335
billion). At that time, CRDB Bank was the second-largest commercial bank in
Tanzania, by assets, behind FBME Bank. It was also the second-best capitalized
commercial bank, behind National Microfinance Bank.
The shares of stock
of CRDB Bank are listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, where they trade
under the symbol: CRDB.
CRDB Bank offers a
compressive range of Corporate, Retail, Business, Treasury, Premier and
Microfinance Services through a network of over 118 branches, 335 ATMs, 13
mobile branches, 984 Point of Sales (POS) terminals 845 Agents – Service
Centre, over 450 Microfinance partner institutions.
The Bank also
operates through internet, Mobile Banking, SimBanking services and agent
banking services.
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