The market for small and medium size businesses is picking up momentum on the Dar es
Salaam Stock Exchange. Mwalimu Commercial Bank Plc was the fourth listing on the Enterprise Growth Market segment on 27 November, and Prime Minister Majaliwa Kassim Majaliwa spoke at the listing. The share launched at TZS500 ($0.23) after its initial public offer (IPO) and then soared by 40% to TZS700 on the first day of trading before gradually falling back to TZS665.
The IPO also registered a success for the mobile phone trading platform launched by the DSE in August 2015. DSE Chief Executive Officer Mr Moremi Marwa told Daily News that at the end of September, a month after the launch, some 700 investors used mobile phone trading. The paper says that because of the mobile platform, upcountry buyers outpaced Dar es Salaam residents in buying shares in the Mwalimu Bank IPO. It is good step forward for financial inclusion in Tanzania. The IPO was oversubscribed by 24%.
Previous EGM listings were Mkombozi Commercial Bank (December 2014), Swala Gas and Oil (August 2014, local exploration subsidiary of Australian Swala Energy), and Maendeleo Bank (November 2013). There are four registered nominated advisers to help companies apply to the EGM for listing and to sponsor their listing and compliance, employing a model based on London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
The EGM was launched in 2013 as part of a successful project backed by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT).
The name of Mwalimu bank means “teacher” in Swahili and was also the affectionate honorific title for Tanzania’s founding President Julius Nyerere. The bank is supported by the Tanzania Teachers Union, which has 200,000 members according to this DSE press release.
It has not yet opened its doors as it needed a banking licence approval and to raise capital, before it can establish systems and procure core banking and other systems. CEO Ronald Manongi was reported in The Citizen newspaper saying it will start offering services in May 2016 with a branch at Samora Avenue in central Dar es Salaam and later at Mlimani City. It has a capital base of TZS31 billion.
