Less than a week after opening its first branch in Zanzibar, Equity Bank has announced that it will be opening its agency banking in the island.
The latest branch brough Equity’s total branches in Zanzibar to 14.
According to Equity Bank Tanzania managing director, Joseph Iha, the lender will embrace the agency banking model adopted by its parent bank in Kenya, where over 25,000 agents processed 46 million transactions in the first nine months of 2016.
“Our plan is to expand our presence here in Zanzibar through more branches, agency banking and merchant banking,” said he said.
The Tanzanian branches contributed a profit of Sh. 300 million in the nine months ended September 2016.
Equity currently operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. The lender reported an 18 per cent rise in after-tax profit to Sh. 15 billion for the nine months to September.
