Gasper Njuu, the Bank’s Board Chairman said this to reporters on the sideline of the bank's shareholders Annual General Meeting held in Dar es Salaam on Thursday.
He said the bank’s commitment and focus on financial inclusion remains to be a key strategic priority.
“We have successfully completed integration with key partners in the provision of digital services, especially mobile network operators and other digital solution integrators,” he said.
Njuu said the bank has registered good traction in rolling out agency Banking channel (Mkombozi wakala),church Cash collection Solution(SADAKA) and internet Banking
“We enhanced our mobile banking channel by launching the mobile application in addition to the existing USSD code platform,” he said.
He said the economic activity in 2022 was undermined by supply - chain disruptions, which were caused by the war in Ukraine, resurgence of Covid-19,and climate-related constraints.
However, strong macro fundamentals allowed the country to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic in good shape, though economic recovery has been relatively modest due strong headwinds created by the ongoing war in Ukraine ,tightening global financial conditions, and global economic slow-down.
The economic recovery in 2022 nevertheless remains broad based with most sectors rebounding to pre-Covid-19 activity levels.
“Inflation was significantly above the central bank’s targets in 2022, particularly in advanced economies.
He said the average annual headline inflation in the country was 4.3 percent, while the real GDP growth stood at 4.7 percent in 2022(compared to 4.9 percent in 2021), projected to grow by 5.2 percent and 6.2 percent in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Njuu noted that another challenge was the non-performing loans as it stands at 9 percent, more than the regulatory requirements benchmark of 5 percent.
The Bank’s Managing Director Respige Kimati said that the year 2022 was a strong year for the bank by a multitude of measures.
He said a key achievement was continued strategic positioning of the bank to deliver on its agenda in terms of resources and infrastructure .
The bank remained resilient, weathered the various challenges, made satisfying progress with strategic priorities, improved efficiency and credit qualities, strengthened the balance sheet and delivered strong financial returns.
“We have made good progress in our transformation journey, with visible results from our years of consistency and discipline cost management ,credit turnaround, product and process alignment and investment in people and technology,” he said.
“We focused on execution momentum to consolidate our achievements and to deliver on critical imperative in 2022.we have become more efficient, addressed legacy loan and operations challenges, strengthened capital and digitized products,” he added.
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