TANZANIA Investment Bank (TIB) has issued agricultural loans totaling more than 550bn/- to farmers across the country.
This was revealed here by the deputy
minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji, when responding to a
basic question from Mr Innocent Bashungwa (Karagwe – CCM) who wanted to
know the government’s plan to ensure TIB and Tanzania Agriculture
Development Bank (TADB) works to alleviate poverty in the country.
Deputy Minister Kijaji said that apart
from agricultural loans, TIB has also supervised government loans to the
agriculture sector amounting to 58.8bn/- by end of 2015, issued through
121 private companies, 11 micro finance institutions and 78 SACCOS.
She said TIB has also issued 489.2bn/-
for the purpose of 181 Rural Electrification Agency (REA) projects
providing financial support for implementation of different projects and
257,000 homesteads have benefitted.
“About 17 groups of small miners have
also benefitted from loans from the TIB amounting to 8b/-,” the deputy
minister added. TIB has also invested in the Tanzania Railway Limited
(TRL) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation’s (TPDC) gas
project by providing loans to Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited
(Tanesco) for compensation purposes as the electricity utilities puts in
place new power lines.
She noted that TIB and TADB main
objective is to provide short and long term loans to fund strategic
development plans, including developments of human settlements in Temeke
and Kinondoni, cashew nut processing industries and water pipelines.
The loans from the two institutions,
have also helped create new employment opportunities and increase
production of export products such as flowers, coffee and gold.
She added that the bank is also
supporting implementation of government’s development plans that include
the 2025 development vision and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
2030 and Africa agenda 2063.
