CRDB Bank’s TemboCard has come a long way from debit to credit card, thanks to the existence of credit referral bureaus. The card reached a milestone last week supported by the establishment of credit reference to put the country financial sector in a new high.
Twenty years ago CRDB was a loss making entity but defied all odds to become the most preferred and trusted bank in the country—actually the biggest bank, in term of balance sheet, in the country.
Over the years, the bank transformed itself into a progressive and modern banking institution. In 2002, CRDB became the first local bank in the country to introduce Smartcard branded TemboCard. The launch of the card was one of the Tanzania banking sector’s greatest innovations in the past decade. The card has helped to revolutionise the national payment system by introducing new ways of accepting and making payments.
“I am happy that I have been part of that adventure right from the roots with great conviction,” Dr Charles Kimei, CRDB Managing Director said, “And conviction was certainly” he needed.
The TemboCard journey was sparked by the bank’s aspirations to improve service delivery through acquisition of modern and robust technology. However, by that time, the banking industry in the country was undergoing transformation from the traditional banking to modern banking. The bank wanted to simplify its services and ensure that all transactions are performed in real time and in an online environment.
For such a move to be successful, the bank made it clear that they have to adopt new means that will allow customers to easily access their funds at different touch points—the TemboCard was born that way using Smartcard technology.
The bank wanted the card to provide an image of how big and strong. So Tembo, the Swahili word for Elephant, was picked that depict the power and strength the CRDB wants to develop. The evolution of a “TemboCard” has provided the bank with a stable market growth and it is now one of the cashcow products of the Bank.
The launch of TemboCard brought about the introduction of other alternative banking channels such as Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point of Sales (PoS) that support the use of these cards. In 2004, the card entered a global sphere after and become the first local bank to co-brand local card with Visa International.
CRDB was certified by Visa International to be both an issuer and acquirer of Visa electron cards. To support card business, CRDB Bank also invested heavily in Point of Sales (PoS) that were distributed to merchants countrywide to enable easy collection of payments.
The Bank now has more than 1,000 Point of Sales in the market. In 2011, the Bank partnered with MasterCard to launch TemboCard Master- Card. In August 2014, the Bank went a step further, by partnering with Chinese Bankcard Association to launch acceptance of China Union- Pay Cards throughout CRDB Bank’s ATMs and point of sale (PoS) terminals. The card also helps to assist collecting revenues in tourism spot through Tanapa.
The card is used in hospital by putting money and use them once one wants to access hospital services in some 100 leading government and private hospitals. The latest achievement of the card was last week when the bank upgraded the Tembo- Card to credit card. The credit cards come into two ways: TemboCard World Reward Credit Card and TemboCard Gold Credit Card.
The World Reward Credit Card enables customers to access up to 50m/-, Gold Credit Card customers can access up to 30m/. However, not all customers who are eligible to have the credit card will have the maximum limit; other will fall as low as 1.0m/- depending on customer’s behaviour. Both Reward and Gold credit card customers are allowed to use 30 per cent of the amount of loan as cash, while 70 per cent will be used to make payment via Point of Sales (PoS) and online purchases.
TemboCard has over 1.2 million customers where some will be notified through phone text message that are qualified to join credit card. However, the doors are open for other new customers but should be subjected to heavy venting to avoid loan defaulting.
Dr Kimei said “this is another major milestone in the TemboCard journey since it was launched 16 years ago
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