Dar es Salaam: About 48 microfinance institutions in Tanzania have assented
to a code of conduct that will greatly improve delivery of services to
micro-borrowers, a statement issued in Dar es Salaam on Sunday 8th January
2011 has said.
The statement issued by Tanzania Association of Microfinance Institutions
(TAMFI) board of directors, affirms that the document is the first code of
standards of practices for Microfinance Institutions in Tanzania.
The press release calls on clients of microfinance institutions to VOICE
their concerns with regard to quality of services and practices of their
respective service providers.
TAMFI has set up a phone number- 0764 668 331, which small scale and
medium enterprise borrowers can use to complain about micro-finance
institutions that will fail to adhere to the code of conduct. The 48
institutions that have signed up for the code of conduct are members of
TAMFI.
“To the Tanzania Microfinance Industry this is a great achievement towards
developing a well organized and responsible microfinance sector. With this
code of conduct, TAMFI members are expected to take a leading role to
deliver high quality and responsible financial services to the community.
The code is intended to make Microfinance Institutions become more
responsive to the clients they serve,” says the statement signed by Winnie
Terry TAMFI Executive Secretary.
The code of practice requires microfinance institutions to disclose
interest rate and other service costs to their members through loan
contracts, advertisements, brochures, and notice boards.
It also states that loan contract is borrower’s right and a copy of loan
repayment schedule should be provided to the borrower.
The code also says that loan contracts should be clear, understandable and
use national local language (Kiswahili).
The code requires lenders to provide verbal explanations to all clients,
especially those who cannot read or write.
The statement says that the code requires staff to behave ethically when
serving clients and calls for use appropriate money collection practices.
At the same time the institutions are required to explain in full the
consequences of late and non-repayments and collections procedures before
they take their loans and during their loan repayments period.
The code also requires the institutions to have customer complaint
resolution mechanism which must include programmes to educate,
make customers aware of their rights among other vital issues.
Among the 48 institutions subscribing to the code of conduct are Tujijenge
Tanzania Limited, African Microfinance, Pride, Dar-es-Salaam Community
Bank, Akiba Commercial Bank, CRDB Microfinance Services Company, SEDA,
YOSEFO, PTF, SELF, OIKO Credit, K-Finance, FAIDERs among others. The full
document is to be found at TAMFI website(www.tamfi.com) as well as the full
list of members who have subscribed to the code of conduct.
For More information
Email info@tamfi.com
Winnie E Terry
Executive Secretary