Updates

1. 29 September 2026

   Loan calculators, and the guides corrected and expanded

   • Added three free loan calculators: the true cost of a loan with its repayment schedule, what you can afford, and a side-by-side comparison of up to three offers. They run on your phone and send nothing anywhere.
   • Rewrote and expanded the borrower guides against the Bank of Tanzania's own documents, and gave each guide its own publication date, update date and list of changes.
   • Corrected the early-repayment rule in four guides. Under Regulation 42 of the 2019 microfinance regulations, a borrower from a licensed Tier 2 lender may repay early, in part or in full, and owes no interest for the remaining period after paying in full.
   • Corrected the timeline in the guide to missed payments, which described a loan as "non-performing" at ninety days. The regulations classify a loan by how many days it is past due, from "especially mentioned" at 6 days to "loss" after 90.
   • Removed two sentences that pointed readers to a loan calculator the site did not yet have. The calculators now exist and the guides link to them.
   • Merged "How to choose a lender" into How to check a lender is licensed, and "Borrowing for school fees or a medical bill" into A budget that survives the repayment. The old addresses redirect.
   • New guides: whether a loan app is approved by the Bank of Tanzania, the fees a microfinance lender may not charge, getting your free credit report and disputing an entry, and what to do when a loan app harasses you.
   • The lender directory now names its source and date on every page, labels the three lenders that are not on the Bank of Tanzania register, lists register lenders first, and no longer calls its default order "Recommended".
   • Published this updates page and an editorial policy that explains how the guides are written and checked.

2. 28 September 2026

   Lender pages kept out of search results

   • The individual lender pages, which repeat the Bank of Tanzania register row by row, now ask search engines not to index them, and the separate sitemap that listed them was withdrawn. The pages stay open to every visitor and linked from the lender directory.
   • The sentence on each lender page that says how many licensed lenders are in its region and district now counts only lenders on the register. It had been counting three lenders that signed up on their own.
   • Old addresses of the two guides merged the next day were pointed at the guides that now cover them.

3. 24 September 2026

   Sources for the guides, and one address per page

   • Guides that describe the law now name and link the Bank of Tanzania documents they rely on.
   • The privacy policy now sets out how advertising works on the site.
   • Every page now answers at one address: variants with a trailing slash or ".html" redirect to it.

4. 23 September 2026

   Six more guides, and an English-first site

   • Published guides on checking a lender's licence, missed payments, comparing two offers, getting out of debt, buying a bajaji or motorcycle on credit, and borrowing for school fees or a medical bill.
   • The website became English-first, and each guide now says who wrote it and when.

5. 22 September 2026

   Six more guides

   • Published guides on reading a repayment schedule, collateral, your rights as a borrower, VICOBA and SACCOS, mobile money loans, and budgeting for a repayment.
   • Every public page now loads as real HTML, so it can be read without waiting for the app.

6. 20 September 2026

   The directory becomes the Bank of Tanzania register

   • Loaded every lender on the Bank of Tanzania's Register of Tier 2 Microfinance Service Providers (edition of 14 August 2026) into the lender directory: 3,250 listings with licence number, region, district and contact details.
   • A lender can claim its page only with a phone number or email address the register itself lists.

7. 19 September 2026

   The first borrower guides

   • Published the first six guides: what a loan really costs, choosing a lender, loan scams, improving your chances, types of loans, and the questions to ask before you sign.

Spotted something wrong? Tell us through the contact page. How we write and correct the guides is set out in the editorial policy.