Celebrating Women’s Day and hosting our first ever Nyumba Day event

The third month of the year tends to kick off with a sense of optimism and activism arising from the notable International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations held globally on March 8th.

Initially created for the advancement of women’s rights, over the years, undoubtedly the call has remained the same, however there is a call for both women and men to actively participate together in advancing women’s rights.

This year, the theme for IWD is Press for Progress- a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity in education, in the work place, in entrepreneurship or any other sphere of influence in our society. For a financial institution like ours, we are committed to press for progress in the way we think, act and innovate. To press for progress is not an entirely new thing at NMB. Perhaps this is done at a more conscious level through the platform NMB Women Arise- created three years go to advocate and close the gender parity gap within the bank something which has progressed well.

A few things to note, 30 graduates- 15 men and 15 women were recruited by the bank in its Graduate Trainee programme in the bank’s recruitment program. There are different programs aimed at empowering women in leadership and management for example Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) leadership program dubbed: “ATE Female Feature Program”. Two women who were trained under the program are currently occupying leadership position within the bank. Veronica Pascal who is an acting Chief Financial Officer at the bank is one of them and Nenyuata Menjooli who heads the NMB Branch Network (over 215 branches).

As a bank, financial inclusion is at the core of our innovation. Our goal is to create products that are gender inclusive. Take a look at NMB Pamoja Account- a group savings account for informal groups (VSLAs, SILC etc) formed with purpose of saving and giving loans to its’ group members. Women have taken hold of the opportunity this account offers in building their businesses and taking care of their families. Our financial capability program WAJIBU has also empowered women through financial education sessions that take place in local primary schools across the country where parents are encouraged to attend. In the video below; women from Morogoro in a Pamoja group named Tuyime share how NMB Pamoja Account has given them the tools to Press for Progress.

Moving on from the celebration of Women’s Day, for the first time in the country, together with our housing partners, we hosted NMB Nyumba Day event- a two day event as we welcomed our customers and non-customers alike to learn more about Mortgage Financing in the country and what we can do for them. There was a great turn out and it was our pleasure to meet your mortgage financing needs together with home developers such as National Housing Corporation, Hamidu City Park and Watumishi Housing Corporation, Fumbo Town to name a few.

The mortgage proposition from the bank offers more attractive terms to borrowers including a longer repayment period (15 years) and competitive interest rates. The NMB Mortgage loan is payable in a friendly reducing balance basis in predictable equal monthly instalment. The minimum amount of loan is TZS 10 Million and a maximum of TZS 700 Million.