Written by the Kopesha team · Last reviewed 23 September 2026 · No lender pays for these guides · How we write them
The right to know what you are agreeing to
Before you sign you are entitled to see the agreement and the repayment schedule, to know the total cost in shillings, and to have every fee named. A lender who hurries you past this part is not saving you time; they are choosing the moment you decide.
You are also entitled to a copy of what you signed. Not a promise to send it, not a photograph of the front page — the document, or a clear copy of it, before you leave.
For a licensed Tier 2 lender this is a legal requirement, not good manners. It comes from Regulation 39 of the Microfinance (Non-Deposit Taking Microfinance Service Providers) Regulations, 2019. Every loan agreement must set out the loan amount, the stated annual interest rate and every other fee. It must also give the effective annual rate with all fees included, explain how the interest is calculated, and name the penalty for paying late and any debt-recovery charges. And it must show the total of all payments until the loan is repaid, with a schedule that splits each installment into principal, interest and fees, next to its due date. Regulation 53 adds that the agreement must be legible, written in simple language, and fair. If anything on that list is missing, ask for it before you sign.
The right to a record of your own payments
Every payment should produce a receipt, and you can ask for a statement of the loan at any time showing what has been received and what remains. This is not a favour. It is the basic record of a debt you are servicing.
Be careful with cash handed to an officer outside the office. If you must, get the receipt at the moment the money changes hands, and keep the SMS if the institution sends one. Payments that exist only in somebody's memory are the payments that disappear.
The right to be treated lawfully when you are behind
A lender may remind you, call you, visit you, send a formal demand and, where the agreement allows it, take the security through the proper process. Debt is a legal obligation and they are entitled to pursue it.
What is not part of that: threats of violence, abuse, publishing your name or your debt to shame you, messaging your relatives, employer or customers about it, taking property that was never pledged, or seizing a national identity card, a passport or a voter's card. None of these becomes acceptable because a payment is late.
These limits are written into law. Under Regulation 56, a licensed Tier 2 lender must give you fourteen days' written notice before it starts to collect or recover a debt. It may not harass, abuse or oppress you or your guarantor, threaten or use violence or any illegal means, use obscene language, pretend a message comes from a lawyer, threaten action it cannot legally take, or collect any interest, fee, charge or expense that your agreement does not name. A debt collector working for the lender must be licensed and is bound by the same rules.
If it happens, write down the date, the time, the name of the person and what was said, and keep any message. A complaint with specifics is acted on; a complaint without them is a disagreement.
The right to have your information kept
The details you give a lender — your identity documents, your income, your family's contacts — are given for the purpose of the loan. They are not material for a WhatsApp group, a marketing list or a debt collector's pressure campaign.
Before you hand over a copy of your ID, ask what it is used for and who will hold it. Before you install a lending app, read what it asks for; an app that wants your contacts and your photographs is planning to use them.
Where to complain, in order
Start with the institution. Ask for the branch manager by name, put the complaint in writing, and keep a copy with the date. A surprising number of problems are one officer, and the institution does not know.
Every licensed Tier 2 lender is required to have a complaints process: a stated way to submit a complaint, a complaints desk or a named officer, and a time limit for an answer. Regulation 54 also requires the lender to display that process, with phone numbers or email, somewhere visible in its offices, in Kiswahili or in both Kiswahili and English. Ask for it by that name.
If nothing moves, escalate to the institution's head office — the register entry on this site carries the contacts — and say clearly that you are escalating and why.
Beyond that, a licensed microfinance institution is supervised, and the supervisor's interest is precisely in conduct of this kind. Take your written complaint, the agreement, the schedule and your record of what happened. Where there has been a threat or a theft, that is a police matter rather than a regulatory one.
That supervisor is the Bank of Tanzania. It publishes its financial consumer protection rules and its guidelines for handling complaints; both are linked at the end of this guide.
One practical note: complaints succeed on paper. The borrower who arrives with dates, receipts and a written record is in a completely different position from the one who arrives with an account of what was said.
And your obligations, stated as plainly
Rights run both ways. You owe the money you agreed to, on the dates you agreed, and you owe honesty about your circumstances. Borrowing with no intention of repaying, or with figures you know are false, harms the next person in your street who needs a loan — because it is priced into what they will be charged.
Sources
This article is general information about borrowing in Tanzania. It is not advice about any particular lender, and the worked examples are examples only — not a quote or an offer from anybody.
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