FINCA Tanzania that operated as a micro-finance institution for the past 17 years has been upgraded into a fully-fledged bank as ‘FINCA Microfinance Bank’. FINCA Microfinance Bank Chief Executive Officer, Mr Edward Greenwood, said in a press conference in Dar es Salaam that the development comes after successful operations and steady growth of the institution.
FNB announced that it has become the first bank to offer its own SIM cards to its customers from 15 June 2015. Currently FNB offers ADSL and 3G data rewards through its FNB Connect offering, which will now be expanded to include mobile voice and data products. The bank is already established in the telecommunications
Equitel, Airtel’s first ever MVNO in partnership with Equity Bank has signed up over 800,000 subscribers and is targeting to sign up 100 million in the next 10 years. The firm has also said it will expand its service to over 15 countries across Africa where Airtel has a footprint. “We already have 800,000 accounts
Steward Bank, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless has introduced a new banking concept. The new model, known as correspondence banking, is a system where a financial institution provides services on behalf of another equal or unequal, financial institution. Through correspondence banking, the financial institution can conduct business transactions, accept deposits and gather documents on behalf
Online and mobile money transfer service WorldRemit launched in Rwanda. Founded by Dr Ismail Ahmed, ‘the man changing the world of remittances’ according to the BBC, WorldRemit provides a quick, convenient, and low-cost way for people to send money to friends and family abroad. People in 50 countries can use WorldRemit anytime, anywhere, on their
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has emerged the winner of the award titled; “Best Governance Risk and Compliance Project in Africa” for 2015. The award was presented during the Asian Banker Technology Implementation Awards 2015 Ceremony organised by a journal ‘The Asian Banker’. The award was presented to Dr Modestus Francis Kipilimba, BoT Director of
FirstRand Bank announced the official opening of its regional head office in Umhlanga, Kwazulu Natal. The first phase of the office development, valued at R430 million has been named Acacia House and is the provincial headquarters of the various divisions in FirstRand, namely: First National Bank, Rand Merchant Bank and WesBank, as well as its
At the World Economic Forum on Africa, MasterCard announced its partnership with Premier Bank, becoming the first international payments network to enter Somalia. As a result of the partnership, Premier Bank will now issue and accept the first MasterCard-branded payment cards in Somalia, a country that hasn’t had any form of formal banking service since
The National Microfinance Bank (NMB) says its net profit has slowed down as the result of reviewing lending procedures to maintain low defaulting ratio, as opposed to claims that the strategy was part of competition. NMB, the biggest bank in term of profitability, said despite a profit slowdown of 0.5 per cent to 38.36bn/- during
The banking sector has been advised to promote the culture of saving as experts believe that “poverty stops once savings starts”. The experts are urging that banks, especially those offering retail and savings services, should make more efforts to bring the unbanked to the financial services since domestic savings are vital for people’s development. The
