- Forbes ranks NMB ninth among the world’s top-performing banks in the US$3–10 billion asset class
By Costantine Muganyizi
NMB Bank has emerged as Tanzania’s global banking champion after securing ninth position worldwide among banks with assets of between US$3 billion and US$10 billion in Forbes’ inaugural World’s Top Performing Banks 2026 ranking.
The recognition places NMB among 500 banks from 89 countries assessed by Forbes in partnership with market research firm Statista, providing a major global endorsement of the bank’s sustained financial performance and long-term transformation.
More significantly, the ranking puts a Tanzanian bank among the world’s top-performing institutions in its asset class, highlighting the growing capacity and competitiveness of Tanzania’s banking sector on the global stage.
Forbes and Statista based the ranking on objective financial data across four key dimensions: profitability, weighted at 30 per cent; growth and earnings quality, 20 percent; capital and funding resilience, 25 percent; and asset quality and efficiency, 25 percent.
To enable meaningful comparisons among banks of different sizes, the institutions were divided into six asset-based tiers. NMB was assessed in Tier 6, comprising banks with assets of US$3 billion to US$10 billion, where it ranked ninth globally.
The ranking comes after a period of strong financial growth for NMB. In 2025, the bank became the first Tanzanian bank to record more than TSh1 trillion in profit before tax, while reporting profit after tax of about TSh760 billion and assets of about TSh17.6 trillion.
The bank has also continued to strengthen its capital base, asset quality and operational efficiency while investing heavily in technology and alternative banking channels, supporting the expansion of financial services to individuals, businesses and institutions across Tanzania.
NMB Bank Plc Managing Directir and CEO Ruth Zaipuna said the recognition reflects the bank’s long-term transformation and the ability of Tanzania’s banking sector to compete on the global stage.
She said NMB would continue leveraging its scale, technology, partnerships and financial capacity to expand access to capital for agriculture, manufacturing, trade, infrastructure and the digital economy, as part of its contribution to the implementation of Dira 2050.
The Forbes recognition comes as Tanzania enters the implementation phase of Dira 2050, which places greater emphasis on private-sector investment, productivity, industrialisation, digital transformation and access to finance.
This creates an opportunity for financially strong institutions such as NMB Bank to play a larger role in mobilising and deploying capital into productive sectors of the economy, supporting businesses, investors and households while contributing to the coRAuntry’s long-term transformation.
The lender’s growing scale and digital capabilities also position the bank to support a broader shift towards a more productive, technology-driven and financially inclusive economy.
Forbes described the new ranking as a departure from its established World’s Best Banks list, which is primarily based on customer evaluations. The new World’s Top Performing Banks ranking instead seeks to identify institutions demonstrating strong underlying financial performance, giving greater weight to measurable indicators of how banks are performing as businesses.
The ranking also highlights the diversity of institutions driving banking performance across different markets and regions. Forbes’ leading performers include major international banks alongside strong regional and country-level institutions, underscoring that scale is not the only measure of banking excellence.
Forbes grouped eligible institutions into six asset-based tiers, ranging from global banks with more than US$500 billion in assets to smaller banks with US$3 billion to US$10 billion.
At the top of the largest-bank category were Singapore’s OCBC Bank and DBS Group, while Zimbabwe’s CBZ Bank led the US$100 billion to US$500 billion tier. Saudi Arabia’s Alinma and Arab National Bank topped the US$50 billion to US$100 billion category, while SoFi led the US$20 billion to US$50 billion tier.
Denmark’s Ringkøbing Landbobank and Texas-based International Bancshares were the leading institutions in the US$10 billion to US$20 billion category. NMB’s ninth-place position in the US$3 billion to US$10 billion tier therefore places the Tanzanian bank within a global field of institutions recognised by Forbes for their financial performance and resilience.
