NMB BANK YADHAMINI MAISHA PLUS, MAMA SHUJAA WA CHAKULA

 Ofisa Mtendaji wa NMB, MARK WIESSING akizungumza kuhusu udhamini wa Sh milion 50 wa benki ya NMB kwenye Programu ya Mama Shujaa wa chakula ambayo itarushwa kwenye kipindi cha Maisha Plus. Kushoto ni Mkurugenzi Mkazi wa Oxfam, Monica Gorman.

 Mkurugenzi Mkazi wa Oxfam, Monica Gorman akizungumz wakati wa mkutana na waandishi wa habari leo.

 Mkurugenzi wa Maisha Plus, Masoud Ally akizungumza na waandishi wa habari leo

“Mama shujaa wa chakula” is an Oxfam design campaign launched in 2011, in Tanzania and rolled out in more than 10 countries in the world.  Mama Shujaa wa Chakula is designed to empower, inspire and support women and youth in food production sector by recognizing women’s contributions and increasing their visibility. The Mama Shujaa wa Chakula also known as Female Food Hero (FFH) award is meant also to serve as an instrument through which the contributions of women in the fight against poverty, hunger and joblessness can be recognized. As the world now faces both an access, distribution and a production challenge, many ordinary people feel depressed, guilty and powerless about these issues. Mama Shujaa wa Chakula is a creative way to make people feel passionate about solving the problems, inspired by our vision for a different future, and empowered to be part of achieving it.

This year Mama Shujaa wa Chakula in Maisha Pluscreativelywill bring together producers and consumers into the debates around the nature of the food system and the need to ensure food justice for all in a resource constrained world. By profiling the type of individual food producers and modeling the best small scale producer investment needed, we highlight what we mean by food justice. In this way, we can build demand for an enabling environment.

As a kick off to the project, the launch was held in Iyenge village, followed by distribution of entry forms across the country. More than 6000 forms were received from 22 regions in Tanzania. Out of all 6000, panel of 7 judges had tough week in choosing the top 15 who will be opening and living in Maisha plus village for two weeks before the youth take over. Below are the names of the 15 finalists and the regions they come from.

NO	NAME	REGION	DISTRICT	WARD	VILLAGE
1	CECILIA MICHAEL LEILWA	PWANI	BAGAMOYO	DUNDA	BENKI
2	FEBRONIA PETER MALINZA	MOROGORO	MVOMERO	HEMBETI	DIHAMBO
3	MARYAM A SULEIMANI	KASKAZINI UNGUJA	KASKAZINI B	MANGAPWANI	MANGAPWANI
4	HALIMA H OMAR	KASKAZINI UNGUJA	KASKAZINI B		DONGE MCHANGANI
5	ZAITUNI SAIDI LIKWITA	LINDI	KILWA	NJINJO	NJINJO
6	MAIMUNA SAIDI MKANJE	MTWARA	MASASI	MBUYUNI	NDIBWA
7	JOYCE NOEL NICODEMO	SINGIDA	IRAMBA	IGUGUNO	IGUGUNO
8	MARTHA MWASU WAZIRI	DODOMA	KONDOA	HAUBI	HAUBI
9	THERESIA ZAKARIA KASSEKO	SHINYANGA	KAHAMA	MHONGOLO	MHONGOLO
10	EMILIANA ALIGAESHA	KAGERA	KARAGWE	KITUNTU	KATEMBE
11	TATU ABDI JUMA	TANGA	LUSHOTO	MWAGOI	MAJULAI
12	NEEMA LINKAY	ARUSHA	NGORONGORO	PINYINYI	ENGARASERO
13	ELDE NNYAFI MWANRI	KILIMANJARO	SIHA	NASAI	SANYA JUU
14	DORA ALBERTO MYINGA	IRINGA	IRINGA	KIHOROGOTA	IGULA
15	MARY A KAMWAKA	RUKWA	SUMBAWANGA	CHANJI	HALI YA HEWA/KANTALAMBA

About Maisha Plus

As a reality Television show, apart from filling the vacuum of local programs and creating a platform for debate for those it offers entertainment too, MAISHA PLUS brings together young aspiring Tanzanians who come from different cultures and backgrounds to live in the village set in the middle of the jungle for eight weeks while carrying out various tasks and constructive challenges from which they learn and experience about rural livelihood. During their eight-week stay in the typical rural environment, various decision makers and opinion leaders, celebrity and corporate figures visit and share with them the knowledge they have on various areas of life and career. Importantly, youth will be trained and inspired to engage in Agriculture value chain as the way of generating income/livelihood for themselves towards reducing youth unemployment illness in the nation as well as contributing in development agriculture sector and national income.

NMB Sponsorship:

The bank aspires to become the first bank of choice for financing agriculture value chain in Tanzania and therefore supports the sector in many ways. It has adapted a value chain approach whereby financial services are provided to small farmers through their cooperative societies. In this way NMB reaches more than 500,000 households in all corners of the country. The bank is applying innovative products and technologies to reach out to the farming community. NMB mobile and PesaFasta are ways to promote financial inclusion. The bank offers both loan and savings products. Apart from financing farmers in the value chain, NMB extends loans to a large number of agricultural input supplies and agri processors ranging from small family owned operations to large scale factories. NMB finances some 600 AMCOS with more than 500,000 farmers involved. NMB total retail agri-portfolio achieved in 2011 is over TZS 100billionin which it involved Warehouse Receipt Finance, out grower loans, Agro dealer loans and other short term and long term loans. NMB has continued to finance the value chain ofCashew, coffee, tobacco, cotton, sugar cane, maize and paddy.

NMB has been facilitating redeeming of Agriculture Input vouchers. Since 2008 total value of over TZS 400 billion worth of vouchers were redeemed. The new Kilimo account is a high interest savings account which can be used as collateral for a farm input loan; more than 1,000 farmers have benefited with a total of around TZS 2.5billion input loans in Mtwara as a pilot. NMB Foundation assists in training farmer co-operatives on good governance and records keeping enabling the AMCOS qualify for bank loans. The bank is working to launch an emerging farmer financing program to facilitate the development of individual farmers. NMB through its various innovative products is working towards financing the agriculture value chain from production, harvesting, storage, processing, trading and export.

NMB is proud to sponsor Mama Shujaa wa Chakula that is run by Oxfam. This programme that recognizes the role of women in agriculture seeks to empower, inspire and support women in food production sector by recognizing their contribution and increasing their visibility. NMB sponsorship of TZS 50 million is invested in recognizing the role of women in agriculture. This is as a proper small scale agriculture investment in the fight against poverty, hunger and joblessness. Women grow, process, market and prepare much of the household’s food. In many places, they are also the keepers of seeds and protectors of water. They deserve the rights and resources they need to produce and purchase healthy food for their families. NMB believes in the need to invest in the productivity, resilience and sustainability of small scale food producers – particularly women.

With a newly introduced financial literacy programme to schools around the country, NMB is committed to ensuring that every woman can control her money as a means to controlling her future, there is a saying in Swahili ‘if you educate a woman you educate the whole family’. A woman’s personal security is largely dependent on her financial independence, and NMB believes that financial literacy must be a cornerstone of every woman’s education. Hence the 15 finalist of ‘Mama Shujaa wa Chakula’ and Maisha Plus participants will be trained by NMB personnel about important aspects of personal finance.

About NMB:

NMB is the leading retail bank in Tanzania, with 140 branches, 1.6 million customers and close to 450 ATM’s.  NMB pioneered major innovations in the Tanzanian market including mobile banking and Pesa Fasta, a ATM based remittance product targeted at the unbanked. NMB is also making inroads in corporate banking, treasury, and transactional services such as corporate payments, collections and trade finance. NMB plays an important role in the agricultural value chain and pioneered warehouse receipt financing for the country’s Amcos.