Opportunity Tanzania has begun the transition to become a regulated deposit-taking institution.  With the help and guidance of Opportunity’s Bank Building Team, Tanzania’s CEO, Peter Olivier expects to secure a license from the Bank of Tanzania to operate as a regulated deposit-taking entity during the first half of 2010. This Micro Finance Institutionlicense will allow Opportunity Tanzania to provide most of the same financial products and services to hard-working poor families as a commercial bank.

Today, Opportunity Tanzania is serving 8,432 active loan clients through its two flagship branches, Dar es Salaam and Arusha. That is an astounding growth in client outreach of more than 30% in the last quarter alone. Here’s just a few items the team seeks to achieve:

• Launch Moshi branch in February 2010.
• Develop additional products and services that bring greater value to the poor families it serves.
• Introduce electronic banking in the short-term and cell phone banking in the medium-term.
• Reach 65,000 active borrowers and 227,000 active savers within five years.
• Achieve operational and financial sustainability in 2011.

Thankyou for all you do to help us reach out to families across the globe that show us time and again that when given the tools to succeed they can and will move beyond poverty. Thankyou for believing in change. Thank you for believing in Opportunity.

Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO), an initiative of Opportunity International, is a network of young professionals (ages 20-35) who aim to inspire, educate and involve others in microfinance and Opportunity’s work in implementing this sustainable solution to global poverty. YAO welcomes people of all levels of familiarity with microfinance and of all faith backgrounds. Through their network of memebers, YAO has championed Opportunity’s efforts in Tanzania. For more information, visit www.opportunity.org/yao.

To learn more about YAO’s involvement in Tanzania click here.