THE Absa Group has won the bid to buy the majority shareholding of Tanzanian bank NBC Ltd. Reliable sources said at the weekend that the Tanzanian cabinet met in Dodoma on Friday and approved a presidential parastatal sector reform commission recommendation to accept the Absa Group tender. “This is not the go ahead for ABSA to invest in NBC yet, but rather that the PSRC can sign a Memorandum of Understanding and enter into serious negotiations on the price and other conditions,” said one source. Four bidders vied to buy NBC. These were First Adili Bank which is a local bank, Barclays Bank of London in the United Kingdom, and Absa and Stanbic from South Africa. The government is looking for a bidder to transform NBC (1997) Limited into a modern commercial bank.