Daily News | 28 April 2025BBT gets massive AfDB 347bn/- boost
by Sauli Giliard
DODOMA: PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa yesterday launched the Building Better Tomorrow (BBT) Programme’s Project I, which focuses on large-scale farming, with a funding boost of 129.71 million US dollars (about 347.37bn/-) from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
During the launch, he also suggested measures aimed at strengthening the cooperative sector in the country.
In the course, he expressed his gratitude to the AfDB for providing the soft loan to support the five-year project, which will cover 53.76 per cent of the total budget, while the Tanzanian government will contribute the remaining 46.24 per cent.
Speaking in Dodoma during a discussion on cooperative sector development, which was part of the roadmap to launching Coop Bank in Dodoma today, Mr Majaliwa revealed that the AfDB loan will be repaid at a very low interest rate of only 0.2 per cent.
The youth and women – focused agriculture programme is expected to contribute significantly to the government’s objectives of food security, improved nutrition and poverty reduction.
To further strengthen the cooperative sector and address financial challenges in agriculture and other sectors, the Prime Minister urged farmers and citizens at large to join registered cooperative unions in order to benefit from various financial services.
He also directed the Ministry of Agriculture to continue monitoring cooperative unions to ensure they adhere to good governance principles, including financial accountability and transparency.
“An accountable and transparent cooperative sector will attract more members,” he emphasised.
Equally, he tasked the Ministry of Agriculture and the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC) to ensure that agricultural inputs remain accessible to farmers.
He called on financial institutions to collaborate with the cooperative sector to make affordable loans available to farmers, which would in turn help boost the agriculture sector.
During the event, the Prime Minister also launched the Annual Agriculture Development Reports for the financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Additionally, he highlighted that these reports would serve as valuable tools for providing accurate sector information to support informed decision-making.
In his remarks, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, stressed that Coop Bank, which will be officially launched in Dodoma today, is not meant to compete with existing commercial banks, but to complement them by offering services to underserved groups, especially farmers.
He further revealed that NMB, one of the largest banks in the country, has shown interest in acquiring shares in Coop Bank, following in the footsteps of CRDB.
Minister Bashe also provided details about the ownership structure of Coop Bank, explaining that cooperative societies will own 51 per cent of the shares, the government will own 10 per cent and other stakeholders will hold the remaining 39 per cent.
During the discussion, the Minister of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi, noted that Tanzania’s cooperative sector was strong in the 1960s and 1970s, but many unions collapsed later due to poor governance and a lack of skilled manpower.
With the introduction of Coop Bank, Prof Kabudi and other participants emphasised the importance of transparency, accountability and skilled personnel in the cooperative sector to prevent the mistakes of the past.
The event was attended by financial stakeholders, development partners and representatives from cooperative societies across the country.
Several champions of the cooperative movement were recognised and awarded for their tireless efforts in restoring the sector to its former glory.
