EQUITY Bank (T) Ltd, one of the largest banks in Tanzania with the purpose of transforming lives socially and economically, has launched a special window named ‘Wanawake Plus’ that is tasked with extending financial services to women.

To be eligible for the window’s services, customers are required to open an account, and through the ‘Mwanamke Plus’ window, a client will access quality banking services including loans, insurance services and financial education.

The window will also be used to provide public health education, specifically concerning non-communicable diseases (NDCs) in partnership with various stakeholders in the health sector, as such maladies account for nearly 74 percent of deaths, from ailments like diabetes, blood pressure, cancer, etc.

 The bank said in a statement yesterday that as part of the community, clients are among potential victims of this health tragedy, so the purpose is to ensure that we have a healthy society for sustainable development of the country.

Equity Bank has initiated partnership with the Tanzania NCDs Alliance (TANCDA) to provide health education to customers, employees and the community at large in order to change risky lifestyles or consumption behaviour, it said.

The bank is seeking to promote financial inclusion and optimise the penetration of banking services closer to the people through physical branches and innovative digital services with mobile banking, it asserted.

“Equity Bank is targeting to ensure that through Mwanamke Plus, all women manage to acquire financial literacy and enable them to grow their capital through different banking services opportunities we are offering including loans,” it specified, affirming that through the newly launched product, customers will also be empowered on how to mitigate or protect against risks through public education conducted by insurance experts.

To this end, Equity Bank is forging closer collaboration with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF), created in 2011 by the Danish development agency (DANIDA), the Spanish aid agency (AECID) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), with a mandate to facilitate access to financing for SMEs.

The fund seeks to enable them to fully play their role as an essential part of private sector engines of growth in African economies, as these institutions are major sponsors of ‘Mwanamke Plus’ through the Affirmative Finance as Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), described online as a pan-African initiative to bridge the $42bn financing gap facing women in Africa..

Equity Bank similarly seeks to ensure that finances of women small and medium enterprises are channelled through formal banking services to enable them to grow their businesses, the statement affirmed, asserting that “this is what Mwanamke Plus is all about.”

Equity Bank (T) has 16 branches and more than 3,000 agents across the country, with 400 employees being part of successful investment originated from Kenya and spreading to other East African Community (EAC) partner states, it added.