President Magufuli irked by poor performance of women bank

President Dr. John Magufuli has expressed his disappointment by the performance reports of the Tanzania Women Bank (TWB) and wonders as to why the bank’s Managing Director is still in the office. The president voiced his concern last week at a launching ceremony of the second phase of the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) that will look for the future of the agricultural activities in the country. The president noted that, since the bank was established it has never issued loans to farmers in the country and instead the bank staff including staff in high ranking position, have been lending themselves fir their own benefits. He outlines the shortfalls of the bank’s internal transaction and said that, it has been engaged in doing businesses with other banks and evaded the purpose for which it was established for with the primary roles of looking for the welfare of farmers in the country. He said since the establishment of the bank in 2014, it started with Tshs. 60 bn/- but has never shown any tremendous development changes shown in spite of Tshs. 207 bn/- which the government added in its capital after having acquired loan from the African Development Bank (ADB). To his great dismay, the president is surprised to hear that, the management of the bank has loaned out Tshs. 82.5 bn/- to other financial institutions and never has it given loan to indigenous farmers. “I could have at least see the bank has invested in industrial processing as a key and major drive of our national economy, but to no avail leave alone farmers who are in trouble, what is wrong with it” the president  queried. 

President Dr. John Magufuli cuts a sealed booklet held by the Minister of Agriculture Dr. Charles Tizeba as a sign to officially launch the the second phase of the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) at a grand occasion that took place at Mwalimu Nyerere Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam city

However, the president has appealed to other 52 banks operating in the country to engage in promoting agriculture and livestock development initiatives for the benefits of farmers in the country. In his speech, the president reminded the audience and noted that, during the exercise he amounted for ghost workers, it was discovered that in the agricultural sector, there were ghost agri business input worth Tshs. 64 bn/- Earlier before he welcomed the head of State, the minister fir Agriculture Dr. Charles Tizeba noted that, despite the agriculture sector has been facing a myriad of challenges in the country, the sector is the leading employer in the country. He said that, about 75 percent of Tanzanians the majority of whom lives in rural areas are employed in agricultural activities, and the sector produces about 70 percent of the industrial raw materials for processing. He further noted that, the sector has grown from 29.2 percent to 30.1 percent during the 2016/17 trading period and contributes 30 percent of the foreign exchange. Minister Dr. Tizeba has also assured Tanzanians of its food secure by 120 percent by having the food stock of approximately 133,000 tones of food reserve in the country.