DETERMINANTS OF BANK LENDING PATTERNS IN TANZANIA: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS

The study looked at bank and industry-specific factors that influence listed commercial banks’ lending behaviour in Tanzania for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020. Asset quality, capital adequacy, liquidity, and bank size were employed as bank-specific factors, whereas Gross Domestic Product and inflation rate were used as industry-specific factors. To establish the cause-and-effect relationship between the response and explanatory variables, the study used an explanatory research design. Secondary data were extracted from seven listed commercial banks audited financial statements for a five-year period, totaling 35 data points. After performing pre-regression analysis (multicollinearity test), correlation and linear analysis were conducted. From 2016 to 2020, the study discovered that capital adequacy and bank size have the biggest impact on Tanzanian listed commercial banks’ lending behaviour. At 5 per cent level, other explanatory variables such as asset quality, liquidity, GDP growth rate, and inflation rate were insignificant. Thus, the study concludes that capital adequacy and bank size influence the lending behaviour of the listed commercial banks in Tanzania from 2016 to 2020. The research was limited to seven Tanzanian listed commercial banks from 2016 to 2020. Regardless of their capital adequacy or size, the banks should lend cautiously. This is because, in today’s intensely competitive business, if larger banks with massive capital lend irresponsibly, they are likely to collapse. Finally, the study results demonstrated that the bank size and capital adequacy influence the lending behaviour of the listed commercial banks in Tanzania