The Bank of Tanzania (Swahili: Benki Kuu ya Tanzania) is the central bank of the United Republic of Tanzania. It is responsible for issuing the national currency, the Tanzanian shilling.

The bank was established under the Bank of Tanzania Act 1965. However, in 1995, the government decided that the central bank had too many responsibilities, and was thus hindering its other objectives. As a result, the government introduced the Bank of Tanzania Act 1995, which gave the bank the single objective of monetary policy.

It is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of ten people, four of whom are ex-officer members which have three advisory committees that can assist them. The bank is headed by its Governor, assisted by three deputy governors in Administration, Economic and financial policies and Financial stability.

The Bank is active in promoting financial inclusion policy and is a leading member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. It is also one of the original 17 regulatory institutions to make specific national commitments to financial inclusion under the Maya Declaration during the 2011 Global Policy Forum held in Mexico.

Recently, Bank of Tanzania was involved in an incident which resulted in an audit of its External Arrears Account. About Tshs 133 billion were discovered to have been lost in 2005 through dubious payments. As a result, the President of Tanzania fired the bank's Governor, D. T. S. Ballali, on 9 Jan 2008. Professor Benno Ndullu was appointed to take this position on the same day.

Functions

The principal functions of the Bank shall be:

• To exercise the functions of a central bank, and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing;
• To issue currency, to regulate banking and credit;
• To manage the gold and foreign exchange reserves of Tanzania;
• To perform any function conferred upon it (or to act as the agent of the Government in respect of any function conferred on the Government) by or under any international agreement to which Tanzania is a party.

There shall be a Board of Directors of the Bank and the Board shall be responsible for determining the Bank, for the approval of its administrative budget and for such other functions as are specifically conferred or imposed upon the Board by this or any other written law.

The Board consist of:

• A Governor;
• Board Director-General;
• The Principal Secretary to the Treasury;
• Five Directors.

The Governor and the Director-General shall be appointed by the President and each shall hold office, unless he sooner dies or resigns or vacates or is removed from his office in accordance with section 8, for the period specified in the instrument by which he is appointed, and shall be eligible for re-appointment.

The Directors shall be appointed by the Minister.

Useful links

Currency of Tanzania:

Tanzanian shilling

List of Central Banks:

Central Banks

Official website of Bank of Tanzania:

www.bot-tz.org

Ministry of Finance of Tanzania:

www.mof.go.tz