Dar es Salaam. President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to inaugurate the newly established Cooperative Bank (CoopBankTanzania), marking a major milestone in efforts to revitalise grassroots financial institutions that had collapsed due to mismanagement and lack of capital.
The bank is expected to serve as a key vehicle for supporting rural economies, especially those anchored in agriculture, by providing tailor-made financial services to cooperative societies and smallholder farmers.
The minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, told journalists in Dodoma today, April 10, 2025 that the bank will be launched on April 28, 2025.
The bank will start with four branches located in Dodoma, Mtwara, Kilimanjaro and Tabora.
The second phase will involve the establishment of branches in Kagera, Mwanza, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya and Katavi.
“Training for agents is ongoing, and apart from the bank branches, there will be agents throughout the country. Prior to the inauguration on April 28, there will be a cooperative stakeholders’ forum on April 27,” he said.
Mr Bashe said the new bank is a result of a specific directive from President Samia to the ministry of Agriculture.
He said President Samia gave the directive because she wanted to see the collapsed community banks brought back to life through a single, comprehensive banking entity.
Most of the collapsed banks were rural-based and served farmers and President Samia had seen the need to restore such banks in order to strengthen the economy at the community level.
“The aim here is to enable farmers and communities to have banks that support them and relieve them from the hardships they face with commercial banks,” Mr Bashe said.
The minister further noted that, in addition to the inauguration of the Cooperative Bank, the ministry is continuing discussions with the ministry of Finance on the necessity of allowing the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) to concentrate on its core mandate of empowering farmers.
“TADB is an agricultural bank, not a commercial one. Even its loans should not be commercial in nature. Our farmers cannot manage loans with repayment periods of two or three years – such terms are burdensome,” he said.
He urged participants of the upcoming meeting to register in large numbers and seize the opportunity to benefit from the banking services to be offered.
