The Government of Tanzania, through the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (TAMISEMI), has confirmed that the loan repayment performance for funds disbursed to women, youth, persons with disabilities, and entrepreneurs prior to April 2023 is satisfactory.
The Government continues to strengthen oversight to ensure full recovery of all issued loans.
Speaking in Parliament today, May 8, 2025, in Dodoma, Deputy Minister of TAMISEMI, Dr. Festo Dugange, made the statement while responding to a question from Mwantumu Haji, a Special Seats Member of Parliament, who sought clarification on when the Government would resume issuing loans to small scale women and youth entrepreneurs.
In his response, Dr. Dugange noted that the Government had reviewed the previous loan issuance and repayment procedures and identified several gaps that led to inefficiencies and delays in repayment.
As a result, the loan program was temporarily suspended to allow for reforms, including the establishment of new committees, procedures, and regulations to ensure better governance of the funds at the local government level.
Speaker, the Government temporarily halted the issuance of the 10% loans by local government authorities in April 2023 to allow for improvements.
The program officially resumed on July 1, 2024, in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act and the 2024 Guidelines for the Issuance and Management of Loans to Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities,” said Dr. Dugange.
He further stated, “In the 2024/25 financial year, the Government, through local authorities, disbursed a total of TZS 82.84 billion to 8,275 groups of women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
Of this amount, TZS 40.71 billion went to women’s groups, TZS 36.64 billion to youth groups, and TZS 5.48 billion to groups of persons with disabilities.”
