Creating wealth in times of crisis

Despite the disruptions faced in 2020, the Group continued to implement wealth creation strategies that are aimed at providing sustainable value to customers. During the year under review, the Group’s treasury business delivered strong and stable earnings in spite of the very challenging business environment occasioned by the COVID 19 pandemic.

The pandemic dealt significant disruptions to the financial services sector, with the impact on the supply and demand side jolting the financial markets to a great extent. Unfortunately, by the time the pandemic reached a peak point, the global economy had already shown signs of a slowdown.

Notwithstanding the disruptions, our Group recorded impressive growth in all major lines of business generating a compounded income of TZS238billion, which is an increase of 10% compared to TZS217 billion posted in 2019. Interest income from trading in government securities was the biggest driver of income growth for the Group even as focus was maintained at ensuring consistent service availability for all stakeholders.

Evidently, market dynamics changed due to the disruptions caused by the outbreak of COVID 19. The changes were far reaching and extended to the management of daily cashflow and liquidity within the Bank Group as well as ensuring availability of foreign currency to support customers and business operations.

Going into 2021, the Group will focus on creating more value for customers by innovating value adding solutions and services to simplify their banking experience. Development of new products, access to new markets and digitization of treasury processes are some of the activities lined up for the year ahead.

The Group will continue to monitor financial markets conditions both domestically and globally and exploit any business opportunities while tracking global policy uncertainties, geopolitical risks, global growth outlook and domestic macroeconomic and financial conditions as they evolve. In addition, the department will continue focus on building strategic business relationships with local and foreign stakeholders to enhance the capabilities of the bank while streamlining its processes through usage of more efficient technology.