By A Special Correspondent
NMB Bank will invest TSh 165 million in this year’s Kariakoo Market Festival, transforming the event into a strategic business-development platform aimed at boosting sales, promoting digital payments and connecting traders with business finance.
The three-day festival, scheduled for September 25–27 at Mnazi Mmoja Grounds in Dar es Salaam, is expected to provide Kariakoo traders with an opportunity to increase turnover, sell products at discounted prices and reduce warehouse inventories ahead of the end-of-year trading season.
But beyond stimulating sales, NMB’s involvement is designed to bring financial services closer to traders and support the gradual formalisation and modernisation of commerce in one of Tanzania’s most important trading hubs.
NMB Head of Business, Alex Mgeni, said traders participating in the festival would have access to the bank’s digital payment solutions, including NMB Lipa Namba, NMB Mkononi and NMB Tap.
The bank will also use the festival as a platform to introduce traders to financing solutions such as Mshiko Fasta and the NMB SME World Business Credit Card, giving businesses access to information on financial products that can support their working-capital and other financing needs.
The approach places digital payments and access to business finance alongside increased sales, creating a more comprehensive business-development proposition for traders.
For Kariakoo traders, the expansion of digital payment options will make transactions more convenient while helping traders participate in Tanzania’s growin digital economy. At the same time, greater engagement with formal financial services will strengthen the connection between small businesses and financing opportunities needed to sustain and expand their operations.
This makes the festival relevant not only as a marketplace for discounted goods, but also as a practical platform for advancing financial inclusion, SME development and Tanzania’s digital-economy agenda.
Kariakoo Market Corporation General Manager Ashraph Abdulkarim said the festival would help traders sell their products at discounted prices while reducing stocks accumulated in warehouses as the year draws to a close.
The organisers have urged traders to register early and encouraged consumers to turn out in large numbers.
The third edition of the festival was launched on September 8 through a special procession that passed through various roads and streets of Kariakoo before ending at Kariakoo Main Market. The launch was led by Mr Abdulkarim on behalf of Ilala District Commissioner Edward Mpogolo. NMB’s TSh 165 million commitment therefore gives the festival a broader economic purpose. It brings together commerce, digital payments and business finance in a single platform, while creating opportunities for traders to increase sales, improve stock turnover and gain greater exposure to formal financial services.
