Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
21 December 2011
EXIM Bank Tanzania has launched a home loan product that will help its customers get affordable and convenient housing finance solutions.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday during the launch of the product, the bank’s Public Relations and Marketing Manager, Linda Chiza, said up to 36bn/- has been set aside to support the initiative.
She said the absence of a competent financing system has over decades forced people to build houses using own savings, adding that it takes an ordinary Tanzanian up to 10 years to complete a house using own savings.
“The product we are launching today will help ease the process of owning a house. Indeed, our product is unique, affordable, user friendly, technologically advanced and has got a host of options available to the clientele,” Chiza said.
Exim Bank in late October together with six other local financial institutions signed a mortgage finance deal with the National Housing Corporation (NHC) that will enable the public to get better housing through mortgage facilities.
She noted that her bank will be in a position to give out between 30m/- and 350m/- for customers willing to purchase or renovate houses upon meeting the desired conditions that include the title deed among others.
“This will be given with competitive interest rates without hidden charges and we have decided to give a long tenure of up to 180 months to ease the instalment burden. Our intention is to enable various segments of people own houses without much hassle.
“Exim Bank in a bid to make long term home loans more readily available, has become a strategic equity holder in Tanzania Mortgage Refinance Company, a pioneer refinance company in Tanzania,” she added.
Ms Chiza said apart from the bank’s provision of tailor-made services and products, plans are also underway to embark on an aggressive expansion drive to cover more regions next year. “We have been the first local bank to establish subsidiaries overseas. We already have branches in the Union of Comoros and Djibouti.
We have plans of opening up new branches to solidify our presence in the country,” Chiza said. Exim Bank recently acquired a new core banking solution from M/S Polaris Software Labs Limited , one of the leading IT enabled banking solution provider in the world market that has helped the bank provide services more conveniently and effectively.
Exim Bank is Tanzania’s sixth largest bank in terms of total assets, deposits and finances and has a network of 21 branches and 48 Automated Teller Machines (ATM) across the country.
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