Company Profile

NMB Bank Plc. (“NMB”) is a full-service commercial bank incorporated in the United Republic of Tanzania. Through its 3 main business divisions: Retail, Wholesale, and Treasury, NMB provides a suite of financial services and products to retail customers, farmers, SMEs, Corporates, Institutions and the Government. 

The bank has 231 branches, over 28,000 Agents (Wakala) and more than 715 ATMs across the country and is represented in all districts of Tanzania. NMB has over 7.1 million customers and employs over 3,600 staff. It is listed at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and its largest shareholders are the strategic partners Arise B.V with a 34.9% shareholding and the Government of Tanzania with a 31.8% shareholding.

Euromoney awards for excellence selected NMB as the “Best Bank in Tanzania” for 10 times in 11 years (2013-2023). The bank has also been named The Safest Bank in Tanzania for the year 2023 by Global Finance Magazine. NMB Bank was also awarded as the Best Blended Finance Partner in Africa for banks working with International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group in 2019.

 History

NMB Bank is one of the largest commercial banks in Tanzania, providing banking services to individuals, small to medium sized corporate clients, government services, large businesses and agriculture lending.

NMB Bank was established under the National Microfinance Bank Limited Incorporation Act of 1997, following the break-up of the old National Bank of Commerce, by an Act of Parliament. Three new entities were created at the time, namely: (a) NBC Holdings Limited (b) National Bank of Commerce (1997) Limited and (c) National Microfinance Bank Limited.

Initially NMB Bank could only provide payment services as well as offer savings accounts, with limited lending capabilities, before becoming a fully-fledged universal retail bank.

In 2005, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania privatized the bank when it sold part of its shareholding (49%) to a consortium led by the Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank B.A. (‘Rabobank Group’).

Subsequently, there was further divestiture in 2008 when the Tanzanian Government off loaded another 21% of its shareholding to the Tanzanian public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The listing of the bank’s stock on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange has led to a diversified ownership structure.

 Founder members

Rabobank Group

Rabobank is a full-range financial services provider operating on the basis of co-operative principles. Its origins are in the local loan co-operatives that were founded in the Netherlands more than 110 year ago by enterprising people who had virtually no access to the capital market. The local Rabobank that evolved from this have a strong tradition in the agricultural sector and in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Rabobank is one of the leading banks in the Netherlands with more than 58,000 employees who serve approximately 10 million clients in 48 countries. In terms of Tier I capital, Rabobank Group ranks among the world’s 25 largest financial institutions and has very high credit ratings, awarded by rating agencies Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investor Service and DBRS. 

In 2020, Rabobank transferred all their NMB  shares (34.90%) to ARISE B.V.

Government of Tanzania

The Government of Tanzania holds 31.78% of the shares of NMB. It holds these shares through the Treasury Registrar in the Ministry of Finance.

Non Founder Members 

The public shareholders (local and foreign investors) hold 33.32% of the shares of NMB.

Below is the list of shareholders who own 0.5% or more shares as at 31st December 2022:

 Business Structure

Retail

The retail unit is structured and segmented to address needs and give value to all our personal customers as well as Micro & SMEs.

Wholesale

Wholesale banking focuses on large corporations and institutions by providing high value services and financial solutions.

Treasury

Treasury offers a wide range of value-added treasury services to suit the financial market needs of Wholesale, government institutions and Retail clients.

Agribusiness

With unique value proposition, the agribusiness unit has a wide portfolio of product which range from upstream to downsream which allows the much needed growth in the sector.


 Business Strategy

The Medium Term Plan (MTP) which ran between 2010-2015 had significant results and created a strong platform for the next growth stage:

Operational Efficiency

• Installed a newly upgraded & powerful core banking system
• IT infrastructure re-mediation project
• Built a state of art tier 3 data centre to power our IT platform
• Revamped NMB mobile: Entered strategic partnerships with mobile network operators (MNOs) to allowed fund transfers between customers’ NMB accounts and MNO mobile wallet accounts
• Piloted NMB Wakala as part of the Agency Banking strategy which aims to create a dedicated network of NMB agents that will be able to provide basic banking services to our customers

Customer Centricity

• Restructured to three business units; Retail, Wholesale & Treasury. Previously, Wholesale Banking and Treasury were not distinct divisions
• Developed an attractive suite of corporate banking products. This enabled us to capture a significant portion of the local corporate banking market

Facilities

• Implemented ‘Sura Mpya’, a project to redesign and refurbish the entire branch network
• Designed and constructed the new corporate headquarters