NMB to Boost Further Zanzibar Tourism
NMB Bank has committed to cooperating with the government to ensure the sector of tourism meets the needs of national economy and become the major employer.
NMB Bank General Manager of Business Services Adelard Mang'ombo said during the Zanzibar Association of Tour Operators (ZATO) annual general meeting at Pwani Mchangani that the bank had enough capital and was committed to pushing further sectoral development. "The bank is fortunate to have a lot of capital. Through this success, we see a need to partner with the government to ensure we participate in the country's economy through tourism," Mr Mang'ombo added.
The lender has committed to using its experts to ensure operating systems in the tourism sector run through a state-of-theart communication technology. Mr Mang'ombo noted that Zanzibar's economy heavily depends on tourism activities, hence, as one of the country's largest banks it was committed to ensuring that the economy continued growing and bringing about social development.
NMB Bank Head of Credit Card Services Philbert Casmir said they were committed to cooperation with the government of Zanzibar to ensure it helped to raise revenue and build the economy. He said the bank believed that its ability to collect revenue related to the tourism sector would significantly boost the blue economy.
On the blue economy, Mr Casmir said NMB Bank had partnered with the government to realise its vision for the blue economy and had already launched a business platform that enabled traders to make transactions through their e-commerce platform.
The bank has facilitated the use of UnionPay cards, which are accepted by the lender's ATMs and point of sales (POS) to bring about better services to traders in the tourism sector.
Opening the general assembly, Second Vice-President of Zanzibar Hemed Suleiman Abdulla urged institutions engaged in the tourism sector in the country to find an alternative way and fully cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture in promoting agricultural tourism instead of being satisfied with spice tourism only. He said Zanzibar needed to be an example of countries, which ranked high in agricultural tourism such as Taiwan, the Philippines, Hawaii, the USA and Brazil.
"The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, among other things, intends to work with the private sector more closely in promoting and strengthening the tourism sector which is currently the mainstay of the national economy of this nation," said the Second Vice-President.
