TANZANIA – Exim Bank Tanzania, a commercial bank, has completed the acquisition of assets and liabilities of First National Bank (FNB) Tanzania Limited, a financial services company, as it ups its expansion plan domestically and regionally.
The move comes almost nine months after Exim Bank Tanzania signed the offer to acquire certain assets and liabilities of FNB Tanzania on October 26, 2021.
The signing paved the way for regulators to start scrutinising the deal, compelling the Fair Competition Commission (FCC) to start looking for stakeholders’ inputs through its January 10, 22 public announcements.
Exim Bank’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Mr Jaffari Matundu, said at the weekend that regulators, including the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), have okayed the deal and that clients with FNB are now banking with Exim Bank.
“We are excited to welcome former FNB Bank customers to the Exim family,” he said.
Exim Bank Tanzania was established almost 25 years ago. It has since expanded to the Comoros, Djibouti, Uganda and Ethiopia, boasting a total of TSh2.4 trillion (US$1.03bn) in asset size throughout the region.
According to Mr Matundu, Exim Bank generated a pre-tax profit of TSh18 billion (US$7.72m) during the first half of the current calendar year, up from only TSh6 billion (US$2.57m) that was registered during a similar period last year.
Total assets reached TSh1.5 trillion (US$643.18m) from TSh1.3 trillion (US$557.42m) over the past year while consumers’ deposits rose from TSh780 billion (US$334.45m) at the end of June last year to TSh943 billion (US$404.34m) in June this year.
Mr Matundu attributes the growth to a conducive environment that the banking sector was currently working in which was in line with President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s pro-business policies.
This is the second acquisition by Exim Bank Tanzania after that of UBL Tanzania which was sealed three years ago.
The acquisition, the first by a private bank in the country, was toward consolidation of the country’s banking sector.
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