President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday asked men to effectively support the newly established Tanzania Women's Bank (TWB) as part of efforts to empower women economically.
He made the call in Dar es Salaam yesterday when officially launching TWB, which started its operations a month ago.
"Let's support our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters…because behind every successful woman there is a man who cares," said President Kikwete.
He underscored the need for men's contribution towards women's development.
"It is important for men to support these women's endeavours in different ways, so as to make the bank stronger and able to reach all its customers across the country," he stressed, calling on the business community, large and small-scale companies to support the initiative.
"The room for men to open accounts and buy shares from TWB is still open…this will be one way of empowering women economically," said Kikwete who also opened an account along with the First Lady Mama Salma Kikwete.
He also told TWB to work hand in hand with saving and credit cooperative societies (SACCOS) so as to reach as many women as possible across the country.
On Kilimo Kwanza, the President asked the bank to prepare a framework for its participation in the strategy through giving loans to farmers.
Apart from giving loans to women entrepreneurs, Kikwete said the bank should also take an active role to boost agriculture, which employs 80 per cent of Tanzanians.
"Women who constitute 50.8 per cent of the entire population play an important role in the agricultural sector, hence the need for them to access loans from the bank in the near future so as to perform better," he said.
Kikwete said for years, most commercial banks have treated agriculture as unimportant, a situation which needed to be redressed.
He urged the bank to draw up an effective loan policy that would make its customers pay back loans on time.
He also urged the bank to recruit qualified personnel for it to operate professionally, saying the move would enable it to effectively compete in the market and reach its targets.
"I would be happy if government institutions and non-governmental organisations would open their accounts with this bank. This would make the bank become successful within a short period of time," he added.
Kikwete also asked TWB management to ensure that they consolidate their Dar es Salaam operations before spreading the bank's wings.
He said this would give the bank a strong base and enable it to compete in the market.
During the event, President Kikwete launched two new accounts namely Tanzanite Account for women and Malezi Account for children.
Community Development, Gender and Children's minister, Margaret Sitta meanwhile said the bank would empower women, but stressed that it was open to all.
She explained that TWB was established purposely to empower women without gender, religion or tribal discrimination.
She said the bank was a request from women entrepreneurs who wanted loans and independent women's financial institution so that they could get loans on soft terms for sustainability of their businesses.
She said that the government gave the bank about 2.1bn/- as initial capital.
TWB Managing Director, Margaret Chacha also said the main task ahead was for them to strengthen the bank within Dar es Salaam before going into upcountry.
She however cited lack of education for many women on the importance of opening accounts and buying shares as among the challenges that the bank would seriously address.
"As bank, we'll work hard to help and advise them," Chacha said, adding:
"But here we're going to have a big group of professionals to take women through step-by-step until we really reach our women."
She further observed that since the bank opened its doors, more than 1646 customers have opened accounts of whom 1325 were women and the rest men.
source:ippmedia