Tanzania to introduce rate cap after Kenya's 'success'

Tanzania will follow Kenya’s footsteps and adopt an interest rate cap after witnessing the success of the law in Kenya.

This is according to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the country’s central bank.

BoT is set to introduce interest cap on loans before March next year, according to Deputy Governor Bernard Kibese.

“I cannot reveal much at the moment, but the policy will be out in as early as March,” Dr Kibese told local paper Daily News.

Tanzania President John Magufuli was also quoted by the paper directing BoT to speed up preparing the interest rate cap on loans to bring them to a fair level.

“(BoT) speed up the capping policy for all banks to have uniform rates on loans… this way many will be able to lend,” the paper reported Mr Magufuli saying while opening a branch of CRDB bank in Dodoma on Monday.

“High interest rates backtrack investment in the economy,” he added.

According to the BoT Monthly Economic Review 2017, the average lending rate for Tanzanian banks as at March 2017 was 17.58 per cent.

Since March 2016, the rate has been climbing from 16.26 per cent, hitting a high of 17.66 per cent in February this year then falling marginally in March.

Tanzanian banks have also been paying an overall rate on deposits of 10.84 per cent.

The country’s move to adopt a rate cap comes when debate on the law in Kenya is at its zenith, with some players in Government, banking and private sector differing on its effect on the economy.

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge has said that the regulator intends to push for a repeal of the law because of the negative effect it has had on the economy.

But he at the same time warned commercial banks that they should be more disciplined in the pricing of loans so as not to overcharge borrowers.

“What needs to change is the discipline among lending institutions. They cannot go ahead setting interest rates the way they were doing before. And it is our job to deal with them in the context of that market discipline,” Dr Njoroge said in earlier interview.

Negative impact

He has also argued that preliminary findings of a joint study with the Treasury on the impact of the rates cap on growth of credit has confirmed a negative impact.

Harrison Gitau, a financial analyst at ApexAfrica Capital Research, said the rate cap in Tanzania could be a success since it is an initiative of that country’s central bank, unlike in Kenya where the initiative came from Parliament without support from CBK.

“The rate cap is an initiative of the BoT unlike Kenya’s, which was pushed by Parliament against the advice of the CBK and other bodies. As such, the rate cap in Tanzania might solve the delicate balancing act of cheap and available credit,” he said.