Incorporation

CRDB BANK LIMITED is a private commercial bank. The Bank was established on July 1st 1996 to succeed the former Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (CRDB), which was a public institution with majority of shares held by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania. The succession was a result of the liberalization of the banking industry in Tanzania.

The liberalization which followed the enactment of the Banking and Financial Institutions act (BFIA) of 1991 and Government’s policy to divest its interest in the sector, prompted a recapitalisation of the Bank to levels stipulated by the BFIA (1991).

Restructuring

CRDB has been blessed with an invaluable partnership from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). DANIDA’s commitment and support in technical, managerial and financial areas of the Bank's operations has been instrumental for the success of CRDB BANK LIMITED.

DANIDA therefore was fundamentally involved in CRDB’s restructuring as demanded by the BFIA (1991). The restructuring, which started in 1992, aimed at a more efficient organizational system, better returns to shareholders and overall improvement in the financial performance of the Bank. The exercise involved:

• Organizational restructuring where the organizational structure was comprehensively decentralized and designed to make the Bank more customer oriented, more accountable and with ability to compete in the free market economy
  
• Operational restructuring where operational policies and procedures were streamlined to make the Bank more efficient and customer oriented in its operations.
  
• Financial restructuring where the Bank was to start operating on sound financial basis and fulfilled conditions and measures of financial soundness mainly as outlined by BFIA (1996).
  
• Human resource management where requirements for human resources were established and manpower downsizing was effected. To have optimum number of employees with respect to customers and bank profitability, 600 employees had to be retrenched. Measures were taken to ensure that jobs restructuring would stimulate employees to work be more productive and aim higher.
  
• Cultural change where new corporate culture attributes stressing on customer service and ability to compete were introduced to Bank staff.

Ownership

Shareholding diversification was one of the aspects of the CRDB financial restructuring. In an unprecedented exercise CRDB became the first successful major Tanzanian privatization that involved the sell of shares to the public.

CRDB BANK LIMITED is owned by over 11,000 shareholders under the following major groups (by value of shares):

The authorized share capital of CRDB BANK LIMITED is Tshs 20.0 billion and presently the paid up capital is Tshs 12.3 billion.