Your rights as a borrower, and where to complain

Written by the Kopesha team at Softsamic Company · Published 22 September 2026 · Updated 29 September 2026 · 14 min read · No lender pays for these guides · How we write and check them

Which lenders these rules bind

A branch officer at your lender tells you a printed loan statement costs extra, or that the cash you paid on Friday will count from Monday, and calls it company policy. For a Tier 2 lender neither is allowed, and you can quote the rule that says so by its number.

Most of the rules below come from Government Notice 679 of 2019, the regulations for Tier 2 lenders: microfinance providers licensed by the Bank of Tanzania that take no deposits. Regulation 3 names the kinds, from digital microfinance lenders and credit companies to individual money lenders. The Microfinance Act 2018, which they are made under, applies to Mainland Tanzania (section 2), so a borrower in Zanzibar cannot rely on them.

A second set is the Bank's consumer protection regulations of 2019 (Government Notice 884), amended in May 2025. They now cover every financial service provider the Bank licenses, or supervises and regulates (regulation 2 as replaced in 2025). That takes in banks as well as Tier 2 lenders, and it is where the complaint route to the Bank comes from.

SACCOS and community groups such as VICOBA sit in Tiers 3 and 4, whose supervision the Act lets the Bank delegate to the cooperative commission and to local councils (section 14). The guide to VICOBA, SACCOS and microfinance explains who does what. If you borrow from a microfinance company, a money lender or an app, first confirm it is on the Bank's Tier 2 register: how to check a lender's licence walks through it, and Kopesha's directory lists the register's lenders by region.

What the agreement must show you before you sign

Regulation 39(2) sets the minimum a Tier 2 loan agreement (mkataba wa mkopo) must contain:

the loan amount, the stated annual interest rate and every other fee
the effective annual rate, with all fees included
a repayment schedule: how many installments (rejesho), each one split into principal, interest and fees, and the due date of each
the total of all payments until the loan is cleared
the method used to calculate interest
the late payment penalty, and any debt recovery fee, charge or expense
notice of any security interest over your collateral (dhamana)
the signatures of both you and the lender

Regulation 53 adds that the agreement must be legible and in simple language, with terms that are "transparent, fair and protect the rights of the borrower". Under the consumer protection regulations it must be in English or Kiswahili, whichever you prefer (regulation 15(3), as replaced in 2025), and a key facts statement that you sign must be attached to it (regulation 27).

Since the 2025 amendment, regulation 11(4) of the same regulations requires interest on loans to be worked out on the reducing balance. What a loan really costs shows how much that changes the total.

Take your own copy of every page you sign before you leave. Questions to ask before you sign turns all of this into a checklist to carry into the office.

Paying, paying early and proving what you paid

Regulation 42(1) says a payment must be credited to your loan on the date you made it, not the day the office gets round to it. Regulation 42(2) then fixes the order: due interest first, then outstanding fees and charges, then principal. Reading your repayment schedule shows how to check both on paper.

You may also repay before the end of the term. Regulation 42(3) lets you clear the loan early, in full or in part, with no advance notice, and says the lender may not penalise you for doing so. Under regulation 42(4), once you repay in full you pay no interest for the months that remain.

Guideline 15 of the 2024 fee rules for Tier 2 lenders is looser. It allows an early settlement fee where the fee is "clearly stipulated" in your agreement, so the regulation and the guideline pull in slightly different directions. Two points are safe: a fee missing from your agreement cannot be added, and after a full payoff no further interest is owed. Getting out of debt you already have weighs an early payoff against other uses of the money.

Keep a receipt (risiti) for every payment. If you hand cash to an officer away from the branch, get the receipt as the money changes hands. An app lender may not accept a payment without issuing an e-receipt or instant message (Guidance Note on Digital Lenders, 2024, paragraph 5.1(g)).

Regulation 28 of the consumer protection regulations entitles you to a written statement free of charge, at least once a month since the 2025 amendment, and to your balance whenever you ask. For Tier 2 lenders the 2024 fee guidelines go further and ban any fee for issuing loan statements (guideline 17(2)(d)); fees a lender cannot charge has the full banned list.

When the last installment is paid, regulation 29 entitles you to a written declaration that the loan is fully settled. The lender must also have any collateral discharged and handed back to you within thirty days of settlement.

When you fall behind: what a lender may and may not do

You owe what you agreed to pay, on the dates you agreed, and the lender is entitled to collect it. The limits are on its methods. Before collection or recovery starts, regulation 56(2) requires a Tier 2 lender to give you fourteen days' written notice. It must not:

harass, abuse or oppress you, your guarantor (mdhamini) or anyone else in connection with the debt
threaten or use violence, or use illegal means
use obscene or profane language
misrepresent the character, amount or legal status of the debt
suggest that someone is a lawyer, or that a message comes from a lawyer, when that is false
threaten action it cannot legally take or does not intend to take
pass on, or threaten to pass on, credit information about you that it knows is false

It may collect only the interest, fees, charges and expenses written in your agreement (regulation 56(3)). A debt collector it hires must be licensed and is bound by the same rules (regulation 56(4)), and under the Bank's 2025 complaint guidelines the lender is responsible for complaints about its agents and third parties (clause 13).

A late penalty is allowed only if the agreement provides for it, and none may be charged when the lateness came from the lender's own negligence (fee guideline 16). The Microfinance Act requires the collection rules to make attaching a borrower's property for sale a last resort (section 51(2)(b)), and a mortgaged property cannot be sold until sixty days after a written demand (regulation 41(3)).

What happens if you miss a payment follows a missed installment stage by stage, and collateral: what you can lose covers pledged goods, land and guarantors.

These rules govern how a debt is collected. They do not cancel it, and nothing in them pauses your installments while a complaint is open. If you cannot pay, ask in writing about restructuring: regulation 43 allows a lender to alter how much each installment is, or over how long you pay, for a borrower in cash-flow trouble, though only as its own lending policy allows.

Loan apps: the extra rules on your phone and your contacts

App lenders approved by the Bank also follow its 2024 Guidance Note on Digital Lenders under Tier 2. Paragraph 5.1(b) says the app may not be used to get into your contacts, call history, SMS, photos, stored files, social media accounts or email, either for identity checks or for chasing arrears. When collecting, paragraph 5.1(f) forbids the lender's officers, employees and agents to threaten harm to you, your reputation or your property, to send obscene messages to your references or contacts, to go through your phone book when you pay late, or to post your personal information to shame you.

The lender must warn you before any debt collector, outsourced call centre or agent gets in touch with you (5.1(q)). It may not make you pay interest upfront or before the due date (5.1(p)).

If an app is already doing any of this, the guide for borrowers harassed by a loan app lists every item in 5.1(f), the evidence to keep and the order to complain in. Is this loan app approved? shows how to check the app against the Bank's approved and unapproved lists.

Your credit record and your personal data

When you borrow from a Tier 2 lender you sign a written consent letting it exchange your credit information with bureaus and lenders (regulation 36). It then reports every loan to the bureaus each month (regulation 35(2)), so a late installment follows you to your next application. Under regulation 28 of the Credit Reference Bureau Regulations 2012 you may request one free report once every twelve months, and your free credit report explains how to get it and have a wrong entry corrected.

Beyond the bureaus, your details are not the lender's to spread. Regulation 36 of the consumer protection regulations, as replaced in 2025, requires it to protect your financial and personal information in line with the Personal Data Protection Act. Regulation 39(b) stops it sharing your information with third parties, including for marketing, unless the use fits the purpose it was collected for.

Before you hand over a copy of your national ID, ask what it will be used for and who will keep it. Before you install a lending app, read the permissions it asks for.

Complaining to the lender, and what it owes you

Start with the lender itself. The Bank takes up a complaint (malalamiko) only after the lender has dealt with it or let its time run out, under clause 25(3) of its Guidelines for Handling Financial Consumer Complaints, 2025.

Each Tier 2 lender must already have, under GN 679's regulation 54, a stated way to complain, a complaints desk or designated officer, and a time frame for answers. It must display that mechanism, with phone numbers or email, at its head office and branches, in Kiswahili or in both Kiswahili and English (regulation 54(3)); the 2025 guidelines now ask for the poster in both languages, free on request (clause 9(2)(f)). The guidelines also require the lender to:

show on the poster its complaint channels, its contacts, the time limits and how to appeal to the Bank (clause 9(2)); a lender on a digital platform shows the same on its premises, website, portal or social media (clause 9(2)(e))
offer at least three channels for complaints (clause 10(3))
charge nothing for taking or resolving a complaint, and keep complaint phone lines toll-free (clause 12)
give you a unique reference number (clause 17) and acknowledge the complaint straight away (clause 19)
have it investigated by someone not directly involved in the matter (clause 20(2))
send its final answer in writing, with reasons and your next steps (clause 22(2)), and tell you to go to the Bank if you are not satisfied (clause 21(3))

The consumer protection regulations set the lender's deadline. Their First Schedule, as replaced in 2025, allows 14 days for a complaint about a credit facility. If the lender cannot finish in time, it must tell you and the Bank before the 14 days end, with its reasons, and may then take up to half that period again, 7 days (regulation 49). The table in the next section sets out every stage, from the lender's desk to a review by the Bank.

A complaint with specifics is harder to brush aside, and if it goes on to the Bank, the Bank may dismiss one where you have not provided the relevant information and documents (clause 25(3)(i)). Put these in yours:

your name, phone number and loan number
what happened, with dates, times and the names of the staff or agents involved
copies, never originals, of the agreement, the schedule, receipts, messages and call logs
what you want done: a charge refunded, a statement corrected, calls to your family stopped, an apology

Taking it to the Bank of Tanzania through Sema na BoT

If the lender refuses, gives an answer you do not accept, or lets its deadline pass without a word, take the complaint to the Bank's Financial Consumer Protection Unit. Clause 25(2) of the 2025 guidelines lists the channels, open during working hours: the Sema na BoT website, the mobile app of the same name, a toll-free phone line (IVR) and a chatbot.

How long each stage may take (consumer protection regulations, 2025 text, and the 2025 complaint guidelines)

Stage	Time limit	Rule
The lender resolves your complaint	14 days (the schedule's line for credit facilities; it has no separate microfinance line)	First Schedule
The lender cannot finish in time	It tells you and the Bank before day 14, then decides within 7 more days	Regulation 49
You take it to the Bank	Within 14 days of receiving the lender's decision, or of its deadline passing	Regulation 51(1)
The Bank asks the lender for its response	10 days, which the Bank may extend by up to 5	Regulation 52(2)–(3); clause 26
The Bank decides	Within 60 days of receiving your complaint	Regulation 53(2)
Either side asks for a review	Within 7 days of receiving the decision; the Bank rules within 21 days	Regulation 55; clause 30

Miss the 14 days and you can still apply if you show good cause for the delay (regulation 51(2)). The Bank will take the complaint only if it has not been the subject of legal proceedings before a court, a tribunal or any other competent authority, and you suffered financial loss or material inconvenience. It may also dismiss one where the facts were misrepresented or the complainant will not cooperate (clause 25(3)–(4)).

If the lender does not answer the Bank, the Bank decides without it (regulation 52(4)). Where the Bank finds for you, regulation 54 lets it order the lender to compensate or refund you, correct wrong data or statements, stop the conduct, or make a formal apology. A lender that fails to carry out the Bank's final decision is liable to a fine of TZS 1,000,000 for each day it is not implemented (regulation 53(5), added in 2025).

You may withdraw the complaint in writing at any time before the Bank delivers its decision, but a withdrawn complaint cannot be reinstated (clause 28; regulation 53(4)).

Where else to go besides the Bank

Threats or violence. Report them to the police as well as to the lender and the Bank. The Bank can sanction a lender, but it cannot protect you from harm.
Misuse of your personal data. Regulations 36 and 39(b) above bind a licensed lender, so a complaint about how it used your data can go to the lender and the Bank. The Personal Data Protection Commission is a separate route: section 39 of the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 lets any person complain to it about a breach of data protection principles, and it must investigate and conclude within ninety days, which it may extend by up to ninety more. Section 37 gives a right to compensation for damage caused by a breach. The loan app guide covers the Commission's complaint form.
A lender with no licence. Lending without a licence is an offence under section 16 of the Microfinance Act. A person convicted of running Tier 2 business without one faces a fine of at least TZS 20 million and up to TZS 100 million, imprisonment of two to five years, or both. Loan scams, and how they work covers where to report one.
Going to court. If you are still dissatisfied after the Bank's review, you may apply to the High Court for judicial review (regulation 56 of the consumer protection regulations, as amended in 2025). Once a dispute has been the subject of legal proceedings before any court, tribunal or other competent authority, clause 25(3)(d) keeps it out of the Bank's complaint process, so choose your route before filing a case, and ask a lawyer which one suits your situation.

Sources

What changed

29 September 2026: Rewritten. Corrected the collection section: seizing a national identity card, passport or voter's card, and taking property that was never pledged, were listed as if Regulation 56 forbade them, but neither is in Regulation 56 and no Tanzanian source for them was found, so both are removed. Removed the statement that Kopesha's register entries carry each lender's head-office contacts, and the unsourced claim that dishonest borrowing is priced into other borrowers' charges. Moved the guide from the cost category to rights. Added: which lenders the rules bind (Tier 2, Mainland Tanzania only, and banks under the consumer protection regulations); payment crediting and allocation (Regulation 42(1)–(2)); early repayment without penalty and no interest after a full payoff (Regulation 42(3)–(4)), with fee guideline 15 on early settlement fees; free monthly statements, the settlement declaration and collateral returned within 30 days (consumer protection regulations 28 and 29); English or Kiswahili and the reducing balance method (regulations 15(3) and 11(4) as amended in 2025); late penalties (fee guideline 16); restructuring (Regulation 43); the digital lender rules on contacts, shaming, upfront interest and debt collectors (Guidance Note 5.1(b), (f), (g), (p), (q)); credit bureau reporting, consent and the free yearly report (Regulations 35 and 36; CRB Regulations 28); data protection complaints to the PDPC (Personal Data Protection Act sections 37 and 39); what the 2025 complaint guidelines require of lenders (clauses 9, 10(3), 12, 13, 17, 19–22); a table of complaint time limits (14 days for the lender plus up to 7, 14 days to go to the Bank, 10 days for the lender to answer the Bank, 60 days for the Bank's decision, 7 days to ask for review); the Bank's remedies and the TZS 1,000,000 daily fine (regulations 53 and 54); and the police, unlicensed lenders and the High Court.
24 September 2026: Added references to the Bank of Tanzania's regulations and a list of sources.
22 September 2026: First published.

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This guide is general information about borrowing in Tanzania. It is not legal or financial advice about your situation or about any particular lender, and the worked examples are examples, not a quote or an offer from anybody.