Bank of Tanzania’s groundbreaking model for financial inclusion success

A delegation from Bank of Tanzania (BOT) took part in a two-day workshop at AFI’s headquarters this week in the first official AFI member to visit the organization’s new facilities. The meeting was followed by a study trip with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to gain insights on how to develop a national financial inclusion monitoring system and a reporting framework for financial inclusion initiatives for Tanzania.

During the workshop, the delegation consulted with the AFI Management Unit about planned activities to support the implementation of BOT’s National Financial Inclusion Framework (NFIF).  AFI’s Executive Director, Alfred Hannig, was on hand to open the workshop, noting Tanzania’s efforts were an example of a new kind of cooperation approach, one that would provide a more cost effective, efficient and effective way for AFI members to work towards achieving their national financial inclusion goals with technical assistance from their peers.

“This is potentially a groundbreaking model,” said Mr. Hannig. “One that will provide a collaboration road map for other AFI members and lead to an acceleration of financial inclusion progress across our Network. The expectations and the excitement about what we are doing here are very high.”

Tanzania was one of the first AFI members to articulate its financial inclusion goals under the Maya Declaration and one of 17 countries that pledged to create a national financial inclusion strategy at the G20 Leaders Summit in 2012. Tanzania officially launched its financial inclusion strategy at an event in Dar es Salaam in December 2013. At that time, BOT Governor Benno Ndulu highlighted his firm belief that financial inclusion provides clear tangible benefits to both individuals and enterprises, while contributing to financial sector development and overall economic growth and stability.

Since the launch, BOT has actually exceeded its initial targets and set even more ambitious goals for its strategy. The workshop and study visit are part of the continuing efforts to ensure that its financial inclusion activities are well coordinated and are taking advantage of the best examples from around the AFI Network.

“On behalf of the entire team let me take this opportunity to deeply thank AFI for accepting to be our host in this visit, and their role in organizing this workshop. I would also like to express gratitude for linking our team to the Bank Negara Malaysia – one of the countries that has very well established the framework to measure the performance of financial inclusion,” said Nangi Moses Massawe, Principal Bank Officer in the Real Sector and Microfinance Department at BOT.

Moving forward, BOT and AFI will collaborate to officially agree on the timeline of activities for implementation of support for BOT’s National Financial Inclusion Framework.