The Cooperative Bank disbursed Sh101.02 billion in loans during its first 12 months of operations, the lender announced this week, a 506 percent jump from the Sh16 billion it issued at launch in April 2025.

Customer deposits expanded from Sh12.5 billion at launch to Sh101.5 billion by the close of the first quarter of 2026, a 709 percent year-on-year increase. Total assets rose to Sh178.7 billion in Q1 2026 from Sh46.8 billion a year earlier, while shareholders' equity climbed 54 percent to Sh42.1 billion. Coop Bank was officially launched in April 2025 by President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Dodoma as a cooperative-owned commercial bank with a financial-inclusion mandate.

Managing Director and CEO Godfrey Ng'urah said the lender's near-term ambition is to extend banking services from roughly 8 million Tanzanians today to 10 million through targeted outreach to youth entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises, and rural communities. The bank is delivering that strategy partly through its Coopesa mobile platform, Coop Net online channel and Coop Wakala agency network, which together form the spine of its 2026–2030 digital plan.

The Q1 2026 figures place Coop Bank among the faster-growing newer entrants by deposit and loan trajectory, though its absolute balance sheet remains modest beside Tanzania's largest commercial lenders. Its positioning around financial inclusion — rather than a traditional commercial-banking footprint — is consistent with the cooperative-bank charter under which it was set up, and gives it a differentiated angle in a market dominated by NMB, CRDB and the listed multinational subsidiaries.

"Our focus is to ensure that financial services reach those who have historically been excluded, including youth, small and medium enterprises and rural communities," Mr Ng'urah said. He added that "any discussion on financial inclusion that excludes agriculture is incomplete," signalling that agricultural lending will remain a priority allocation for the bank's loan book.

The next milestone for Coop Bank will be sustaining loan and deposit growth without compromising asset quality, a challenge that has tripped up similar inclusion-focused lenders elsewhere. Mr Ng'urah's reference to a 10-million-customer target sets a clear North Star for the 2026–2030 strategic period.