PRESIDENT KARUME OFFICIALLY OPENS REFURBISHED NBC ZANZIBAR BRANCH

 

19, October 2006

The President of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government, His Excellency Hon. Amani Abeid Karume has today officially opened the refurbished National Bank of Commerce (NBC) Zanzibar Branch in a colourful ceremony held at the NBC Zanzibar Branch offices located along Kenyatta drive in Shangani area in Zanzibar Town.

The refurbishment of the branch is part of NBC’s grand plan to refurbish all its branches in Tanzania.

“This year alone NBC intends to refurbish 8 branches countrywide. Early this year, NBC made a conscious decision to refurbish the Zanzibar branch, to conform to NBC’s ultra modern corporate look befitting international standards. NBC is a Tanzanian bank. In essence, this means we are not only obliged to provide traditional banking services to the people of Tanzania, but we are compelled to offer first-class service right where the Tanzanian public is,” Johann Schreuder, the NBC Head of Retail banking told invited government dignitaries and businessmen in Zanzibar who attended the launch ceremony.

The National Bank of Commerce was privatized in April 2000, and since its privatization, NBC Ltd has remained one of the most represented commercial banks in the country, with 35 branches, and achieving several milestones along the way.


They include amongst others:
Introduction of a computer system, which enables NBC to electronically link all its branches real time online throughout the country.

In early 2002 NBC brought banking even closer to its customers by introducing more than 30 ATMs across the country, thereby making banking conveniently available 24 hours a day.

Within the same year, 2002, NBC made banking easier bringing it closer to every Tanzanian by lowering their minimum balance on Savings Accounts to Tshs. 5000.

In November 2002, NBC went further and launched internet Banking for Retail and Corporate customers, bringing banking into peoples homes and offices.

NBC has opened new branches in economically active areas such as Geita, Karatu, Kariakoo, and The Sea Cliff Village. Plans are underway to open branches in Kahama and Mlimani City before the end of this year.

In June 2004 NBC launched the largest VISA enabled ATM network ever in Tanzania. To day NBC has 60 VISA enabled ATMs spread across the country, which enable anyone with a VISA enabled Debit Card or Credit Card to access their local or foreign accounts. This means that in terms of diversified distribution, NBC is the bank with the largest online-real time VISA friendly ATM network in the country. Plans are underway to further increase this footprint in this financial year.

To date NBC has over 200,000 ATM cardholders.

In February 2006, NBC launched VISA Points of Sale. This product allows all VISA cardholders from anywhere in the world to purchase products and services from Merchants that are signed up with NBC. This is the first time that VISA Points of Sale transactions are processed within the borders of Tanzania, supported by a 24hr call centre also housed within Tanzania.

In September 2006, NBC joined hands with one of the country’s leading cellular networks, Vodacom, to introduce for the first time in Tanzania and Africa South of the Sahara, recharge services via ATMs. The two companies have developed a product that will allow prepaid mobile phone users to go to any NBC ATM and pay for additional airtime using their ATM cards.

“As a leading corporate citizen, we acknowledge that we are in business because of the people around us and in those communities where we do business. That is why we have established a deliberate Corporate Social Investment (CSI) fund aimed at enabling the development of the community in which we do business,” Schreuder said.

NBC’s CSI fund has three key focus areas, namely Education, Job Creation, and Health. Over the last five years NBC has invested several hundreds of millions of shillings in these three sectors. To date the largest single Corporate Social Investment by NBC is in Health, where the bank donated four fully-fledged state-of-the-art mobile clinics worth nearly Tshs. 250 million, a first in the history of Tanzania. These four mobile clinics provide the much-needed medical services to the people of Tanzania free of charge.