CRDB BANK INCREASES DIVIDENDS

As CRDB Bank kicks off the bank’s Annual General Meeting in Arusha today its management has announced that it has upped the dividend payments from the previous TZS 12 to TZS 14 per share.

The CRDB Bank Board Chairman, Mr Martin Mmari revealed that effective from this year, the bank has increased the share pay-out by TZS 2 in line with their new dividend policy, which stipulates a disbursement ratio of at least 35 per cent of the Bank’s annual net profit.

The Bank’s after tax profits is was TZS 84 billion an increase of TZS 3 billion from last year’s profits, a performance that resulted from growth of shareholders’ funds from TZS 317 billion in 2012 to TZS 376 billion by the end of 2013.

The growth is equivalent to an increase of 19% in the CRDB shareholders’ funds.

Tabling the prospects for 2014, the CRDB Board Chairman stated that the macroeconomic performance has been strong with inflation declining to a single digit and gross domestic product (GDP) growth projected at about 7% in the medium term.

Mr Mmari said the bank’s return on assets, was 3.5% above the target set in the strategy which was mapped to at least 3%.

“It is my expectation that in 2014 CRDB will continue to be the leading bank in Tanzania as we continue implementing the 2013 - 2017 business strategy with due consideration of emerging opportunities,” he stated.

CRDB's focus this year will be on the main drivers of the economy i.e. telecommunications, transport, financial intermediation, manufacturing, construction and trade.

“We also expect better opportunities for corporate banking and wealth management from large foreign and domestic investments targeting the mining sector and fast growing middle and high income classes respectively,” said Mmari.

He said he was of the view that the newly found natural gas resources will indeed play an important role in the country’s socio-economic transformation over medium term. Large investments have been planned in the gas and energy sectors and are expected to reduce power tariffs and electricity supply problems in future.