For borrowers in Tanzania
Borrow in Tanzania with your eyes open
Kopesha is a free directory of the lenders on the Bank of Tanzania’s Tier 2 microfinance register (as of 14 August 2026), with free loan calculators and plain-English guides. Kopesha does not lend money.
Use it to check that a lender is licensed, to work out what a loan will cost before you sign, and to learn how loan scams work.
Look up a lender
Search the directory by name, licence number, region or district. Each listing gives the lender’s licence number, region and district, and the phone numbers and email addresses the register lists.
Search the lender directoryRather not ring around? Leave one request for the lenders in your region to see, and they can call you back.
Free loan calculators
Do the arithmetic before the lender does
Everything is worked out on your own phone or computer. Nothing you type is saved or sent to Kopesha or to any lender.
Loan cost calculator
What will this loan cost me in total?
Enter the amount, the rate the lender quoted, the term and any fees to see each installment, the total you repay, the effective annual rate and the full schedule.
Open the calculator →
Affordability calculator
How much can I afford to borrow?
Start from what you earn and must spend to find an installment you can keep paying in a bad month, and the loan size that fits it.
Open the calculator →
Compare loan offers
Which of these offers is cheaper?
Put two or three offers side by side, using the cash you actually receive, and see the total cost and the effective annual rate of each.
Open the calculator →
Borrower guides
Recently updated guides
Plain-English guides on what loans cost, how to check a lender and what to do when repayments go wrong. No lender pays for them.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 13 min read
Fees a microfinance lender may not charge you
The eight fees Bank of Tanzania rules ban outright for Tier 2 microfinance lenders, the ones they allow and on what terms (management fee, insurance, late penalty), a payout sheet checked line by line, and how to challenge a charge.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 14 min read
Harassed by a loan app: where to complain
Messages to your contacts, insults, threats and posts online: which Bank of Tanzania rules and which Acts forbid them, the evidence to save, and how to complain to the lender, Sema na BoT, the data protection commission and the police.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 12 min read
Is this loan app approved by the Bank of Tanzania?
How to check a loan app against the Bank of Tanzania's two lists: the 19 approved platforms and 116 unapproved apps, what an approved app must show you, look-alike names, and how to report one.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 11 min read
Your free credit report, and fixing a wrong entry
How to get the free credit report you can ask for every 12 months, what it shows and who put it there, how long a late loan stays on file, and the 2- and 15-working-day deadlines for flagging and correcting a wrong entry.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 14 min read
Buying a bajaji or motorcycle on credit in Tanzania
A TZS 3.2 million boda boda loan worked through in shillings: whether the bike can carry its own installment, LATRA licence fees, the insurance the law requires, what happens if payments stop, and getting the card into your name at the end.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 10 min read
Comparing two loan offers, line by line
Two offers for TZS 1,500,000, one over 6 months with a fee and insurance taken at payout, one over 12 months with a smaller fee and compulsory savings held back, compared on cash in hand, total repaid and true yearly rate, with the Bank of Tanzania rules behind each line.
Before you borrow
Four checks worth a few minutes
Each one links to the guide that explains it in full.
Check the lender is on the Bank of Tanzania register
Ask for the lender's full name and licence number, then look them up. Our directory is copied from the register, and the guide shows how to check the Bank's own copy too.
Read the guide: How to check a lender is licensed, and choose oneLook into a loan app before you install it
Before an app sees your ID or your phone contacts, find out which company runs it and check it with the Bank of Tanzania. The guide shows where to look.
Read the guide: Is this loan app approved by the Bank of Tanzania?Never pay a fee before you receive a loan
A “processing”, “registration” or “insurance” fee demanded before any money reaches you is the usual shape of a loan scam. Stop there, and never share your mobile money PIN.
Read the guide: Loan scams in Tanzania and where to report themKnow the total before you sign
Ask for the total you will repay and the repayment schedule in writing, not only the rate. A rate quoted per month, or charged flat on the whole amount, costs more than it sounds.
Read the guide: What a loan really costs in Tanzania
About the directory
How the lender list is built
The lender list is copied from the Bank of Tanzania’s register of Tier 2 microfinance service providers, which the Bank publishes as a PDF. A lender can claim its page and add details such as opening hours and loan products, but a listing is not a recommendation and Kopesha does not check any lender’s terms. No lender pays to be listed, for its place in the directory, or for what the guides say. Kopesha is run by Softsamic Company in Tanzania.
For lenders
Run a microfinance business?
Kopesha also makes loan-management software for microfinance lenders: loans, repayments, installment schedules, SMS receipts and reports. It is a separate product from the directory and the guides.
Kopesha for lendersGet the Kopesha app
The lender directory, the borrower guides and a loan calculator are also in the Kopesha app, alongside the loan-management system that lenders use.