NMB Bank’s digital transformation to accelerate Zanzibar’s Blue Economy Agenda

The 6^th Tanzania Annual ICT Conference 2022 (TAIC-2022), was officially opened by the Zanzibar President Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi in Zanzibar on Wednesday with NMB Bank pledging to continue being at the forefront of leading the blue economy agenda by using its digital capabilities to support realization of the agenda.

TAIC 2022 is a three day conference that was opened on October 26 and ends October 28 organised by the Tanzania ICT Commission in Zanzibar under the theme “Unlocking digital potentials for economic growth” and brings together over 1000 participants from the ICT sector and other stakeholders including invited guests, and corporate companies from in and outside Tanzania.

While presenting a topic at the conference, the NMB Chief Internal Auditor, Benedicto Baragomwa, said the bank’s pledge is just a continuation, as his bank has already been a major contributor to the growth of the Blue Economy in Zanzibar through various partnership agreements already signed adding that Zanzibar has been benefiting from the bank’s digital investment transformation.

Baragomwa said their partnership with the Zanzibar Association for Tour Operators (ZATO) has led to the establishment of the special prepaid card dubbed ‘NMB, ZATO Prepaid Card’ adding that the NMB e’Government platform also helps to collect payments for Institutions in Zanzibar through NMB systems adding that all those initiatives are geared towards promoting the Blue Economy.

“Through our partnership with Electronic Government Agency Zanzibar (E-GAZ), the bank has developed a ‘One Stop Center’ platform for Zanzibar Ports Corporation (ZPC) used for managing cargo clearing at the Zanzibar Port. This system also facilitates generation of control numbers thus simplifying the port processes, reducing turnaround time (TAT), and providing the government with clear visibility on revenue collection,” Baragomwa added.

He emphasized that, the large investment done by the NMB bank to foster digital transformation since 1997, is the secret why over 94% of the bank’s transactions are carried out in our digital channels outside the bank’s 228 branches, also supported by more than 10,000 bank agents, more than 800 ATMs and other services, including Teleza Kidigitali, NMB Mkononi, Point of Sale (PoS) etc.

Baragomwa said the bank’s decision to participate in the conference is due to the role of technology in the ‘digital economy’ adding that his bank has invested heavily in innovation which has been key in driving growth efficiency and provision of various banking solutions.

“We have done a lot Zanzibar to facilitate blue economy drive and speed up economic growth and creating a cashless economy through the ‘one stop center’ and PoS. Just recently at Zanzibar airport, we launched a Foreign Exchange Automated Teller Machines (FX-ATM)  to change foreign currencies such as pounds , dollars and euros into Tanzanian shillings and this service is available 24 hours,” added Baragomwa.

The conference was also attended by the Minister of Information, Communication and Information Technology, Nape Nnauye, Director General of the IT Commission, Dr. Nkundwe Mwasaga, who urged that ICT is a catalyst to rapid economic growth of any country and commended the the Government and other stakeholders for organizing the national conference that closed on October 28, 2022.