| The Government of Tanzania has set a high priority effort to raise its people's incomes and alleviate poverty to tolerable levels by year 2025 ( Development Vision ). Being predominantly an agricultural economy, rural savings mobilization and strengthening of micro-finance institutions is among the key components in her Rural Development and Agricultural Sector Development Strategies. In line with efforts to rationalise the development of a strong micro-finance sector, the Government of Tanzania has developed and adopted a Rural Micro-finance Policy covering all aspects of Micro-finance institutions (MFI) development through registration, governance, supervision and inspection. The design of the Rural Financial Services (RFS) Programme is fully consistent with this policy and assists in ensuring its adoption throughout the programme area. The RFS Programme is a core part of International Fund for Agricultural Development's ( IFAD 's) country strategy for Tanzania, which was designed to create the necessary enabling environment to tackle the major constraints facing rural households.
The Rural Financial Services Programme was therefore formulated with the objective of enhancing the capacity of rural communities to build strong micro-finance institutions using their own efforts and resources. The Programme on Rural Financial Services under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office , aims to achieve sustainable increase in incomes, assets and food security of poor rural households through enhancing their capacity to mobilize savings and investment in income generating activities, commenced in January 2002. The RFSP was planned to occur through development of a viable financial system, well suited for the rural environment, and capable of networking with the existing financial institutions.
Towards this endeavour, RFSP is organized in five programme components namely:
Programme financial contributors include:
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