Source: Daily News

PROMOTION of gender equality, equity and women empowerment is one of the priorities of the government of Tanzania. In this regard, it has taken various measures to address gender inequality and ensure women empowerment in all spheres of life.

In the process of empowering women especially the rural women, the government has established the TWB officially inaugurated on 4th September 2009 by President Jakaya Kikwete. The bank was given task to make sure that it takes its bank services up to the rural areas where many rural poor women live. It started its branch in Dar es Salaam but now it has opened a branch in Mwanza and the prospect to spread to other areas is huge.

The government of Tanzania is very gender sensitive. "Gender" is fully integrated into policies and strategies like vision 2020 and MKUZA in Zanzibar and Vision 201 and MKUKUTA in Tanzania mainland. To make the bank more realistic in its operation, TWB started with a government sourced capital injection of 2.8bn/-.

To ensure its sustainability, President Jakaya Kikwete made further commitment by promising to inject 2bn/- annually for the period of five years after its establishment.

TWB is committed to promote economic and well-being of Tanzanians especially women through providing empowerment via bank services. The bank is eager to position the status of Tanzanian women as true and dynamic agents of change by empowering women economically through giving unique credits.

Speaking recently in Dar es Salaam, the Tanzania Women's Bank Executive Director, Mrs Margaret Chacha has urged women throughout the country to use the bank by depositing money and be able to access loan services. Mrs Chacha adds that the bank will extend it operation to enable rural areas women also to benefit through buying shares and the use of other services.

She urges Tanzanian women to take lead in buying shares to overshadow foreigners as they have economic ability to do so. She says that women entrepreneurs in the country should take advantage of robust financial services for their development. "Women's entrepreneurs should take advantage of banks in the country to deposit their money and access loans to develop their businesses," she says.

Research conducted by REPOA on credit and loans schemes indicates that women efforts in alleviating poverty in Tanzania are affected by various factors such as imperfect markets, stiff competition, inadequate loans and poor weather condition. It is not only the loans which can transform the lives of women in Tanzania and other areas especially developing world. However, banks and other financial institutions have a place to facilitate women development.

For example, in Indian subcontinent, the Grameen Bank was the first bank which transformed the life of many extremely poor Indian women by giving them small loans and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for being a socially responsible bank. Even at global level, several initiatives to empower women have been taking place. The World Bank also identify empowerment as one of the key constituent elements of poverty reduction and as a primary development assistance goal. It has also made gender mainstreaming a priority in development assistance.

In Africa, particularly in Malawi, the story of empowerment also has taken a central role for its private and public sectors. The Small Holder Agriculture Credit Administration (SACA) and Malawi Mudzi Fund (MMF) have been arranged to get the impact of microfinance interventions. The study found that average credit farmers had income three times greater than the average noncredit farmers.

It was also learned that credit farmers achieved about 71 per cent income per hectare than non-credited farmers. It has been further observed that credit and loans is the key element in economic empowerment because it assures the productivity of the enterprise or a person being financed. "Tanzanian women should be prepared to buy shares when time comes... they now have that ability... they should buy majority of shares at the bank," she said.

An entrepreneur, Ms Maajab Rajab was presented with a cheque worth 750,000/- while Ms Agnes Daudi was presented with a cheque worth 500,000/-. Ms Maajab and Ms Agnes became the fourth and fifth winners respectively of the Mwanamakuka awards. The first, second and third winners were awarded in a ceremony that took place in March, this year.

Ms Chacha said that her bank will help the winners open accounts at the bank and will assist them with more entrepreneurial skills to make them develop. On her part, Mwanamakuka Awards Project Coordinator, Ms Maryam Shamo, said they awarded the winners as a way to encourage them to do better in the future. "We recognise that there are women who work hard and they need a helping hand," she said, adding that it is the wish of the organisers of the award to see women prosper and emancipate themselves.

There is good reason why we should support women entrepreneurs in Tanzania as the TWB is doing. The economic reforms from the mid 1980s and the consequently privatisation exercise still taking place in Tanzania have forced retrenched employees to join informal sector which requires the financial institutions in the country to do reformations programmes in order to accommodate them.

The TWB has been doing it and has promised that it will continue to do similar job by sponsoring entrepreneurial women's programmes such as of Mwanamakuka. There is every reason for other financial institutions to learn from TWB. Their efforts should be supported.

• Tanzania