TIOB addresses youth unemployment

DAR ES SALAAM: THE Tanzania Institute of Bankers (TIOB) has thrown its weight behind capacity building programme that looks to train university students in banking operations.

The programme started last year, aiming to enhance their competence in the labour market and help address the challenge of youth unemployment.

TIOB’s Executive Director Mr Patrick Mususa said the programme ‘Ng’ara Career’ conducted in partnership with Niajiri company seeks to build students capacities on financial issues to enable them attain various positions within the sector.

“These students will be intensively trained, coached, and mentored on the job training and exposed to various banking opportunities in preparation for the next generation of transformational leaders,” said Mr Mususa last Friday at the closing ceremony of the banking challenge.

The ‘Ng’ara Career’ programme is under TIOB Scholar Banking Challenge and 30 students were trained last year. Approximately 2,460 students from more than 50 colleges in the country participated in the three months challenge between April and June.

The top 30 students were selected and top ten will be offered a scholarship and cash prizes.

Mr Mususa said the half of the 30 students attended the programme last year were offered jobs directly by the financial institutions. Tanzania Commercial Bank (TCB) who offered a job to the best student.

“We hope the percentage will increase by the end of the three-month career course and a significant impact on financial institutions,” he said.

Earlier, The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor, Mr Emmanuel Tutuba, said that the challenge conducted digitally adds significant value to the use of digital systems in the financial and banking sectors.

He further highlighted the current performance of the financial sector, noting that it is operating profitably with sufficient capital and liquidity.

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According to BoT data, the banking sector total assets of banks reached 59.05 tri/- up to the end of June.

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) average ratio dropped to 4.06 per cent at end of June down from the regulator’s benchmark of 5.0 per cent.

Additionally, the banking sector continued to make a profit of 556.8bn/- in three months to June.

“Despite these successes, there is still a lot to be done to increase financial inclusion,” the Governor said.

Data from the Finscope survey last year showed that only 22.2 percent of Tanzanians have access to banking services.