Category Archives: Tanzania

Tanzania – Is UK aid fuelling corruption?

From: Yona Maro
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Written by Sarah Hermitage

“This is a good moment for taking a step back and ask ourselves whether we would call today’s overseas development aid policy and practice successful – successful, that is, in providing sufficient impetus to overcome the strong forces worldwide that keep people poor.” – Phil Vernon, International Alert.

In March 2011 British Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell announced major changes to UK’s international aid program based on a nine-month review of the agency’s policies. “This government is taking a radically different approach to aid. We want to be judged on our results, not on how much money we are spending,” Mitchell said of the changes to the aid program.

The 2010 Budget restated the British Government’s commitment to reach 0.7 per cent of national income as aid by 2013, following a November 2009 Queen’s Speech commitment. Provisional 2009 data suggests that the UK’s total aid expenditure reached £7.4 billion, or 0.52 per cent of national income, up around £1 million from £6.4 billion in 2008 (0.43 per cent of national income). This represents a doubling of the aid/national income ratio since 1997 (when it was 0.26 per cent), and is the highest level of the ratio since 1964. Andrew Mitchell states such amounts are morally right and represent the values of the UK and its government but in times of austerity at home, how can these amounts of overseas aid be justified particularly in countries that show little commitment to good governance and thus slow development.

Most commentators agree that the purpose of development aid is to create conditions where assistance is no longer required. The Paris Declaration lays down a practical, action-orientated roadmap to improve the quality of aid and its impact on development’ and recognizes that aid is more effective when partner countries exercise strong and effective leadership over their development policies and strategies. Whilst we need to recognize that we are on very controversial and politically sensitive terrain when we talk about aid, there can be limited value to the British tax payer to continue to support countries where aid is not producing sustainable development due to a lack of effective leadership from receiving governments.

Tanzania is the third largest gold producer in Africa and is rich in mineral resources. Despite its mineral wealth, it is the largest recipient of development aid from Britain and has received in excess of US$2.89 billion in aid (from all donors) in its 50 years of independence. It is Africa’s top and, the world’s third leading recipient of aid after war-torn Iraq. It depends annually on foreign aid by 45 per cent, receiving US$453 million for its 2011/12 aid budget under the umbrella of General Budget Support (GBS). Despite these massive amounts of foreign aid, there has been no significant decrease in poverty over the last 20 years and the country is lagging behind on key development goals for safe water, income and health despite considerable economic growth. The 2007 Tanzania Household Budget Survey showed very little change in income poverty since 1991. Overall, in the 16 year period between 1991 and 2007, poverty fell by about five per cent. But most of this change can be explained by progress in Dar es Salaam. In rural areas, and other urban areas, the decline in poverty is too small to give confidence that poverty has actually fallen (Policy Forum-Tanzania). High economic growth in Tanzania has not been pro-poor.

Such dependency on aid can be understood in war-torn Iraq, but Tanzania’s dependence on foreign aid is surely difficult for DfID to justify. UK’s influential cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recently criticized DfID’s poor understanding of the scale and possibility of aid being lost to fraud and corruption. In the 2010-2011 fiscal years, DfID reported losses of £1,156,000 (0.016 per cent of total spending) which PAC stated to be unbelievably low. Even if the mechanisms for the effective administration of aid are present, it is inevitable that large amounts of DfID’s money will go astray (and certainly much more than the 0.016 per cent). In Tanzania alone, senior official’s estimate 20 per cent of the government’s budget in each fiscal year was lost to corruption, theft and fraud (U.S. Department of State 2009 Human Rights Report). Assuming this figure is accurate, £130 million of tax payers’ money will be lost to corruption over the next four years from DfID’s £643 million aid budget to Tanzania alone.

Corruption is endemic in Tanzania and a failure to effectively address it belies the Tanzanian government’s commitment to upholding the rule of law, the quintessence of any successful aid policy. Former British High Commissioner to Kenya Sir Edward Clay states that in Kenya, Secretary of State Mitchell and his predecessors have ‘missed the warnings about the folly of investing in a government whose most distinctive characteristic was its endemic corruption’ and that DfID policies have done little to address the systematic problem of corruption: providing an alibi for bad governance and doing little to ‘address a culture of impunity’. There is little to suggest the situation is any different in Tanzania (whilst it is acknowledged that Tanzania is aid dependent and Kenya isn’t).

The director of the International Centre for Tax and Development Research, Professor Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, observes that Tanzania is good at chasing donor money and argues that if efforts chasing donor funds were reduced by one per cent and redirected to increase local revenue collections, the treasury coffers could have increased. He highlights the negative relationship between aid funds and revenue collection. A recent study argues that if corporate tax had been paid on the 2010 revenue of Barrick Gold at the US Federal rate of 35 per cent, the monies raised would have been in the region of (Tanzania Shillings) TZS225 billion (approx. US$141,432,935.64).

In evidence submitted to the House of Lords Economic Development Committee in August, Sir Edward Clay highlights poor governance as a common cause of the failure of development assistance to achieve its objectives. He states that chronic poverty and, above all, deepening inequality, cannot be overcome without confronting corruption in its many forms and recognising the debilitating effects it has on the institutions of a state. This view is shared by Saumu Jumanne, a lecturer at Dar es Salaam University who states that Tanzania is poor because of poor leadership and management of the aid and that only a trickle of aid reaches the targeted groups and sometimes even aid for orphans is misappropriated.

Tanzanian writer Sebastian Sanga suggests Tanzania’s political stability misleads external partners as regards the realities of democracy and the degree of correct resource governance. He highlights the difficulties of propagating good governance in Tanzania stating powerful and self-interested economic actors gain control over the executive department, to their own advantage, meaning that there are then enormous losses for the entire society.

In light of such damning evidence of poor governance in Tanzania, it is hard to understand or indeed justify the contradistinctionary view held by the British government. DFID ranks Tanzania in the top 10 per cent of countries supported by British aid which has the potential to be most well used. Henry Bellingham, the British Minister for Africa recently assured Tanzania’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Bernard Membe that Tanzania would remain one of the top receivers of UK aid as it was one of the few countries in Africa with an outstanding human rights record and good governance. A policy that denies the true state of governance in aid receiving countries provides a vacuum for the misuse of aid, fuels corruption and does little to promote sustainable development and relieve the lives of the poor.

UK aid flows to Tanzania have increased from £111.776 million in 2006/7 to £146.045 in 2009 (SID 2011 Tables Index DfID) and are viewed by the Tanzanian government as a fait accompli. British lawyer Dirk Crols makes this point that African governments consider foreign aid as a permanent, reliable and consistent source of income providing no reason to adopt an alternative policy to foster and finance the economic development of their countries. He poses the question, if the only thing you have to do is to cash your cheques, why should you elaborate an economic-financial policy or planning in the long term?

The late economist Péter Bauer drew an unusual (but increasingly accepted) correlation between corruption and foreign aid, a phenomenon he referred to as the vicious cycle of aid. Bauer wrote that in countries where governments, public institutions and courts of law are corrupt, both domestic and foreign investment is unattractive. Fewer investments lead to a reduction in economic growth and thus an increase in poverty levels. As a response, donors give even more aid which further feeds corruption.

Zambian economist Dambisa Moyoclaims 50 per cent of UK aid will end up in the bank accounts of corrupt bureaucrats, in banks that are not even in the country where aid is supposed to go due to a lack of administrative infrastructure to allocate the money and efficient accountability mechanisms to oversee that the money is going to the right places. Tanzania has vast mineral resources and the means to develop itself; yet fifty years after independence it remains Africa’s largest recipient of aid with the British tax payer being the largest unilateral donor.

Andrew Mitchell states UK aid is about value for money and ensuring that every pound taken off hard-pressed taxpayers delivers 100 pence of value which is accountable to the British tax payer. Mitchell states the Coalition government takes a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and clamps down ruthlessly on any misuse of funds allowing British aid to deliver value for money and achieve the best results in fighting poverty and building a safer world.

However, Mark Lowcock, Permanent Secretary at DfID has confessed to the PAC that he does not know how much of DfID’s aid money was lost to fraud and corruption. ‘Poor people in developing countries expect the aid and debt relief received by their government to be spent in ways which actually improve their lives. Similarly, taxpayers in rich countries expect finance to poorer countries to be spent on fighting poverty.’ It is not suggested that UK cuts aid to Tanzania but, it is suggested that whilst issues of poor governance are ignored, corruption flourishes with impunity. As a result, the lives of the Tanzanian poor will not be sustainably relieved and the British tax payer will not get value for money in respect of its aid programme.

If we take a step back therefore and ask if today’s overseas development aid policy and practice is successful in Tanzania – successful, that is, in providing sufficient impetus to overcome the strong forces worldwide that keep its people poor, the answer is, it is not.

Sarah Hermitage is an anti-corruption activist and lawyer living in the UK. (sarah.hermitage@btinternet.com)

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Canadian firm is to develop Buckreef mine in Tanzania following the lastest multimillion dollar deal

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

The Buckreef gold mine will restart operation after 17 years following a USD 280 million deal with Tanzania’s State Mining Corporation has entered into Canadian gold explorers, Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation.

Information emerging from Dar e Salaam say, the move is in line with the new Mining Policy and Mining Act 2010 which allow s the government to take an active role in mining by owning shares in the business concerns.

“We aim at a win win situation reflected in a national and fair revenue sharing from the mining and energy sectors,” said Deputy Minister for Energy and minerals Adam Malima.

The state-owned mining company, known as Stamico, will hold a 45 per cent of the shares while the remaining will be owned by Tanzanian 2000, a subsidiary of the Canadian company.

Malima was quote by the local press as saying that the government was actively engaged in mining activities after the enforcement of the law. The Buckreef goldmine is estimated to have deposits amounting to1,450 million ounces.

“Exploration is still underway to determine whether there are more deposits at the site”,said Minister Malima.

He explained that the company had already requested the ministry to enlarge the mining site from the current four square kilometers to 16 square kilometers..

According to Ally Samaje, the acting Commissioner for Minerals at the Ministry, Stamico closed down the mine after failing to properly manage the costly mining operations. The mine was closed in 1994 and since then Stamico has been scouting for a strategic partner to re-develop the facility,” said Samaje.

Tanzania 2000 will have 30 months to complete a research and feasibility study that will cost USD 20 million.

The mining sector in Tanzania currently contribute about 2.3 per cent of the GDP, which is projected to rise to 10 per cent in 2003.The joint venture comes as the Tanzanian government plans to raise royalty payments on gold exports by the end of this year.

The country’s Minister for Energy and Minerals William Ngeleja disclosed the government has already reached an agreement with mining companies to raise royalty payments from the current 3 per cent to 4 per cent.

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An Australian company has started mining for coal in Tanzania to help in power generation

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

REPORTS emerging from the Tanzanian capital, Dar Es Salam say an Australian firm Intra Energy Corporation {IEC} has started coal mining in Tanzanian coastline of Indian Ocean.

The work has started at Mbalawala Mine, Ngaka coalfield in Tanzania and is targeting both domestic and export thermal coal markets of Kenya, Mauritius and India.

The Tanzania government awarded the firm a mining license in August that allows it to provide domestic coal in Tanzania for power generation and coal export starting before the end of 2012.

The executive chairman of the firm Graeme Robertson was quoted last week by the local media houses as saying that starting this month they will produce between 120 and 500 kilo tones of coal per annum, going for between USD 80 and USD85 per tone on the domestic market.

The firm will also start producing 120 megawatts of coal fired electric power with target of 1,000 MW in 2013.

Robertson further stated that after 12 and 18 months, IEC plans to ramp-up coal production to as much as 3.5 metric tones per annum to support domestic power generation in addition to industrial sales of 0.5 metric tones per annum.

“The coal- fired powered stations could be constructed by IEC and a joint venture partner, or by the government. or a third parties with a specific energy-intensive project,” he said.

IEC said that until coal-fired power plants are constructed in the region, initial customers are likely to be East African industrial users such as cement manufacturers, who are currently using expensive imported coal or low-quality alternative products.

“IEC understands that at least two contracts have been signed, though the details are considered confidential,” said Robertson, adding that 1,000 tones of Seam Three bulk samples has been sent to Tanga Cement and Mbeya Cement for testing.

Tanzanian Minister for Energy and Minerals William Ngeleja disclosed that mining license was granted on August 22 after receipt of an Environmental Impact Statement and that the mine site and port infrastructure is under construction.

The Mbalawala Mine was officially opened to the community and local government on May 19 this year.

The IEC says it prefer to own and operate services that are critical to mining as opposed to out sourcing, including establishment of business units such as mining, geology and technical services, catering assaying and drilling.

The strategy, according to IEC, is to set up an “ integrated profit center” that can boost the local economy and allow internal control of costs and scheduling.

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals January Makamba said investment in coal is a way to fight the persistent power deficit in the country.

“Countries like the US and the UK were dependant of coal, which drove them to development. So coal will bring significant progress to rescue Tanzania from darkness, “he added.

While Tanzania has a mineable reserve of 40-million tones of coal, about 250,000 tones of coal is imported from South Africa per year.

Meanwhile a report has revealed that East African coastline is increasingly attracting investors interests as a major natural gas hub following recent commercial discovery in Tanzania and Mozambique.

Mozambique is estimated to have over 6 trillion cubic feet {tcf} of gas while Tanzania has 7.5 trillion cubic feet of the resource.

Petroleum Development Consultants {PDC} said China, India and Japan are the potential export markets for liquefied natural gas {LNG} from Tanzania nd Mozambique once the infrastructure is in place.

“The interesting question is whether there will be a liquefaction plant in both Tanzania and Mozambique or whether a single shared location could be developed,” said PDC managing director David Aron.

He said natural gas from the Pande and Temane onshore fields in Mozambique is currently exported to South Africa while Tanzania gas, produced from offshore fields, is used primarily for power generation.

Toronto-listed Orca Exploration, through its subsidiary Pan-African Energy, is operator of the offshore Songo Songo gas field, jointly with Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation {TPDC} and Bermuda’s Globleq.

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Tanzania now prohibits its sugar from being exported to he neighboring countries

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

REPORTS emerging from Tanzania say the government has banned the export of sugar the neighboring countries to protect to domestic stock.

The action is viewed of as part of testing its commitment to open trade in the region in other East African Community member states battle a bitter sugar deficit.

The government has already directed all regional and district authorities in border areas to ensure that no sugar is transported out of the country.

The Tanzania Sugar Board {TSB} which is the regulating authority said at the weekend that the shortage is due to smuggling was to blame for the sharp price increases by some areas as kilogram of sugar is retailing at between Tshs 2,200 {USD 1.35} and Tshs 2,500 {USD 1.54} compared with Tshs 1.500 {USD one} a few days ago.

In the neighboring Kenya the price of sugar rose to Kshs 200 {USD 2.2} per kilo as retailers took advantage of supply shortages to raise price of the commodity.

In Uganda and Burundi, a kilo of the commodity is gong for Ugshs 5,000 {USD 2.2} AND Ush 2000 {USD 1.64} respectively.

TSB is not advocating border closure but instead the government to take swift measure to address the mushrooming sugar smuggling into neighboring countries which is subjecting the country to massive revenue loss TSB Director General Mathew Kombe said.

“We know local traders have been exporting the commodity to various countries the deficit.”

The government said premium prices offered in neighboring have pushed up prices in some regions along the border on a retail basis.

Exports are expected to have pushed up prices

In some regions along the borders on a retail prices.Export as expected to seek export permits to other countries but many were doing so.

The local industries mainly production stands at 40,000 tomes against consumption of between 30,000 tones at 35,000 tones.

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Tanzania: God give us good leader

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From: Pauline Mengi

Most of us attribute problem of Tanzania with lack of leadership. That might be partially true but the difficult path to overcome is the process that produce the existing and new leaders.

The same process that produce Mkapa also produce Kikwete yet both produce different result. Mkapa use the same process to install Kikwete as the President and we are all witness to the end result of that experiment.

My people always pray to God and request that he should give them a good leader. But, how many people want one of child molesters that applied for a job as kindergarten teacher. This is what we asking God to do. Next, my people ask God to help repair the damages done to country by these same existing leaders. In short, God should come down to clean their roads, give water and electricity, fix their school and roadway.

The existing leaders have succeeded in getting the religious leaders to join their crusade to finish the Country once and for all.

In fact, some of these men of “God” were given free duty importation license as reward for their membership and others are allow to go into money laundry business while the law look the other way.

While these men of “god” acquire luxury planes other riches of the world by collecting “taxes” without representation, their followers are waiting for their return in investment in heaven.

The followers are making financial sacrifices in exchange for illusive miracle or fire to kill invincible enemy or fortune teller(vision). But, their leaders with aid of their new found friend are living the life of the riches and famous. Minister Laurence Masha had 2 or 3 thanksgiving party with his partners after he was kick out office.

Some of my brothers and sisters have been turn to zombies and lazy bums in search for miracles. Many have already resolved that their only hope for clean drinking water is to wait until they get to paradise in heaven. However, the lunatics among them are ready to go to paradise with bomb strap to their waist.

I believe God is listening to the prayers but the problem is the prayer request. For example, in Kikwete vs. Dr Slaa election, God make sure the right person won the election. I can not say for sure that God gave us Kikwete because he came through the same process like Mkapa . But, soon or later, what kingmakers did in dark of night will come to light.

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Tanzania plans to establish ten new airports to ease air travels in the country

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

INFORMATION emerging from Dar Es Salaam says Tanzania has envisaged plan of establishing and upgrading ten regional airports countrywide at USD 67.5 million infrastructure project set to kick off before the end of the year 2012.

The project will also feature the completion of the modernization of Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar Es Salaam to enable it to handle more than 30 planes per hour, up from the current 11 planes an hour beginning July 2012.

Transport Minister Omar Nundo was quoted last week as saying the airports will be built in Kigoma and Tabora regions in the western parts of the country. In Rukwa and Mbeya regions in the Southern highlands, Mafia district {Coastal},Msalato {Dodoma},Singida,Mwanza, Arusha and Bukoba [Kagera}.

“Construction of the airports will improve infrastructure helping the aviation industry meet the increased demand,” said the Minister.

Despite the existing tourist attractions such as the world famous Serengeti National Game Park, Mt Kilimanjaro and the sea resort of Zanzibar,Tanzania has not hit tourism target due to poor infrastructure and other failures. For example, 794 tourists visited Tanzania in 2010 against a one million tourist target, although earning increased by 11 per cent during the period to USD 1.28 billion.

This has seen mining industry overtake tourism as the main country’s foreign exchange earner. Officials said the initial plan was completed last year, while the feasibility study has been presented to the World Bank for approval.

Construction of Songea International Airport in Mbeya region is currently going on and is on course to be completed in December this year.

The Tanzania Airport Authority has completed feasibility and design for Msato Airport in Dodoma.The government has kicked off a compensation plan for the residents who will be affected by the project.

Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo was also quoted in the local media as saying that the government was involved in serious discussion with its development partners as well as the Arab Bank for African Development and African Development Bank for a USD 105 million loan for the construction of Msalato International Airport.

The government has set aside USD 650 in the 2011-2012 budgets for the same project. Terminal 1 and 11 at the Julius Nyerere international Airport are currently 12 million passengers a year, but are now handling up to 1.5 million passengers. This should help ease congestion at the airport. The two terminals were designed to handle 1.2 million passengers a year, but are now handling up to 1.5 million passengers.

Upon completion of terminal 111 within the same area, Julius Nyerere International Airport will have the capacity to handle seven million passengers a year.

According to Airport’s masterplan, it will be he largest hub in the region, partly symbolized by TAA’s plan to launch an ambitious export processing zone project to stimulate manufacturing and production of value – added goods, boost exports, and aid in the financing of airport maintenance and upgrading.

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Tanzania: The Case of Energy Ministry: Investigate all Parliamentary Standing Committees!

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From: Yona Maro

Press statement, Tuesday 19 July 2011

The Case of Energy Ministry: Investigate all Parliamentary Standing Committees!

The withdrawal of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals’ budget during the Parliamentary debate is evidence that the responsible Parliamentary Committee either intentionally or unintentionally, did not perform their prerogative role of scrutinizing the budget well. An independent investigation inquiry should be set up to look into the possibility that Parliamentary Standing Committees may have been bribed by the government in order to approve ineffective public budgets.

The media is awash with reports that the Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, shelved the budget for the Ministry of Energy and Minerals for three weeks following a fierce debate over the current power and mining crisis. Lately, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, David Jairo, had written a letter to agencies and institutions under his ministry directing them to contribute Tsh 50 million each in order to facilitate smooth tabling of his Ministry’s budget.

This seems to have been the usual tradition as part of the letter states “…kama ilivyo kawaida wakati wa kuwasilisha hotuba ya bajeti Dodoma…” although this time business turned out to be not as usual, rather a saga. It was also reported in the media in the past few weeks that the Parliamentary Standing Committee responsible for the Ministry of Energy and Minerals may have been bribed to approve the Ministry’s budget in Dar es Salaam. The feeling among the public is that the case of the Ministry for Energy and their respective Parliamentary Committee is not an isolated one.

Apparently, similar trends have been observed regarding other ministries. For example, most public institutions usually organize for seminars with the Parliament before the budget debate for their respective ministries. These seminars may possibly be meant to pay MPs in order for their budget loopholes to go unchallenged.

Tanzania is faced with perennial problems emanating from poor oversight of the government by the Parliament. Some of these problems include unprofitable business contracts, grand corruption scandals, public budgets fraught with unnecessary expenditures, poor public financial management, and abuse and misuse of public funds.

Since both the Parliament and Government are implicated in this bribe scandal, an independent body should be tasked to form an independent probe committee to investigate these allegations of the government bribing the parliament. Corrective measures should then be taken against those found responsible.

Mr. Irenei Kiria

Executive Director of Sikika, P.O.Box 12183 Dar es Salaam,
Tel: +255 222 666355/57, Fax: 2668015, Email: info@sikika.or.tz, Website: www.sikika.

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Legitimacy crisis mounting over Tanzania’s undisciplined regime (BT)

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from wrlmakundi@ . . .
dateFri, Jul 1, 2011 at 8:59 AM

Makes for a good weekend reading.

mchilyi

From: ba…lu@ . . .
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:37:45 -0500
Subject: Legitimacy crisis mounting over Tanzania’s undisciplined regime (BT)

I see all the kelelez of wapambe have been silenced… Business Times limejaa shombo tupu! Let me contact Brian and get my nakala!

Revolutionary Right Reverend Kishoka

“Who comes to give greeting to the Inkosi-kaas? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit is death? I, the Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I, Umslopogaas!”

From: camwasam@ . . .
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:09:20 +0100
Subject: Legitimacy crisis mounting over Tanzania’s undisciplined regime (BT)

Written by Times Reporter
Friday, 24 June 2011 05:30
TIMES REPORTERS

THE Tanzania economy recorded relatively good economic growth over the last decade; but it could have done much better than that…
A new study on Dar’s investment climate indicates that the country’s rent-management remains largely decentralized and undisciplined, with deleterious consequences for investors.

‘Economic rent’ is a term used to describe returns to a factor of production (land, capital and labour) over and above what is required to retain that factor in current use.

“In previously fast-growing sectors like mining, investors are increasingly circumspect, while high potential areas like horticulture appear largely ignored,” says the study report, compiled by Brian Cooksey and Tim Kelsall – and titled ‘The Political Economy of the Investment Climate in Tanzania.’

In Tanzania presently, the ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) more or less monopolizes the main forms of economic rent. In the event, it is difficult to make serious money if one does not have good connections to the party!

The result is that, recent increases in economic growth – which have yet to have a discernible impact on poverty reduction – are likely to be ephemeral.

The Report also reveals that the current economic policies favour foreign investors – although they have not created an impact upon the economy!

It is worth asking whether Tanzania needs the kinds of foreign investors who employ few people, repatriate a vast majority of the country’s natural resource rents – and have little sympathy for local people or local ways of doing things, the Study questions.

The Report, published on behalf of the Africa Power & Politics Programme (APPP) by the Overseas Development Institute states in part that “Tanzania, we conclude, is a case of ‘non-developmental patrimonialism;’ and its regime is likely to face a mounting legitimacy crisis in coming years!”

The Report rejects the International Monetary Fund view that Tanzania will be one of the fastest growing countries in the world over the next decade.

“For reasons we shall discuss, political-economic realities in Tanzania create unfortunate constraints on investment, meaning that it is not a good model for other countries,” it says.

The Study of the political economy of the investment climate on Mainland Tanzania is part of a larger research project into business and politics in Africa, conducted by the Africa Power & Politics Programme.

The analysis provided is focused on the relationship between the management of economic rents and provision of public goods conducive to a good investment and business climate.

Tanzania was chosen for fieldwork in the Cooksey-Kelsall Study
because, in recent years, it has had a good record of attracting foreign investment, especially in the mining and tourism sectors, says the Report – a copy of which Business Times has.

The Study also found that, under certain circumstances, neo-patrimonialism in Africa could be harnessed for strong economic performance – and the general idea is that something of that sort might be happening in contemporary Tanzania.

It analyses the political economy of the investment climate in horticulture-for-export, and gold mining. It also discusses the contribution of institutions – political and cultural – as well as external relations to Tanzania’s non-developmental equilibrium, and possible avenues of change.

It distinguishes between four different periods, or rent-management regimes. One: 1961-1967, when Tanzania pursued a relatively orthodox pro-market development strategy, with reasonably centralized, long-horizon, rent management.

Two: 1967-1978, when the country embarked on a turn-to-the-left, with rent-management becoming more centralized, with the time-horizon remained long.

Three: during 1978-1985 when, in spite of being committed to a long-term development vision, the ‘Centre’ lost control of rent-management… And, finally, 1985-1995, when some technocratic integrity was injected into the Administration – but decentralizing pressures continued to undermine rent-management.

“A key criterion, it seems to us, is that the high political elite of the CcM should recognize that the current situation is unsustainable,” says the Study.

Organs like the Central Committee of the ruling party could then conceivably be used as part of monitoring mechanisms for mutual discipline of the elite, helping steer rent-seeking into more developmental areas.

The Report stresses that “the political system in Tanzania has settled into equilibrium of non-transformative growth without poverty reduction.

“Collective action problems within CCM, short-termism driven by periodic elections, complacency bred by foreign aid, and a political cultural hostility to private capital – especially foreign – helps to create this, and dissuade the political leadership from taking the steps that would significantly boost private investment.

“It may be that this equilibrium is sustainable for some time. But, it seems to us that growth without poverty reduction, when combined with a relatively open political environment, is likely to bring instability down the line.”

How might Tanzania move to a new, poverty-reducing pathway? The report asks…

“If there is no single leader with the will or reputation to impose a new discipline in CCM – say by going over the heads of the party and engaging directly with the masses… then there is little chance in the short-term.”

On mining, the Study found that, although the fate of Big Mining in Tanzania is to some extent a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of relationship-based governance, authors of the Study do not believe that following best-practice guidelines would necessarily have been the solution.

“The legal situation with respect to mining sites in Tanzania was complex and confused; and, it seems probable that – with a rule of law approach – mining investments would never have got off (or under) the ground,” the Study concludes.

The situation is somewhat similar in horticulture…

“Although in the 1980s and 1990s the state condoned a process in which natural resource rents (i.e. land rights) were transferred to private investors, they have subsequently provided only intermittent support for the sector!

“We have explained Tanzania’s failure to create the kind of climate favourable to long-term investment and growth in terms of an absence of centralized, long-horizon rent-seeking,” the Study states.

“We believe this is an interesting finding that bears out our general conclusions about the conditions for successful economic performance in Africa. However, it does not in itself amount to a full explanation of why Tanzania is economically under-performing.”

In addition, “CCM – having much more organizational power than the political Opposition – ought realistically to expect to be in power for a long time. However, CCM does not behave in the way predicted by Olson’s Model!”

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Tanzania: CHINESE to construct another multi billion railway line in Tanzania’s mineral rich Southern region

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

TANZANIA, Africa’s third largest gold producing Africa nation has envisaged plans to construct a railway line to open up its mineral rich Northern region to boost the country’s coal and iron ore revenues.

The planned rail project is estimated to cost a colossal amount of money to the tune of USD 1.5 billion {Tshs 2.3 trillion}.

The 850 kilometer railway line whose construction is set to begin next year, will link coal and iron ore mining projects in Mchuchuma and Liganga respectively to the Mtwara port in Southern Tanzania.

The deputy Minister for Transport Athumani Mfutakamba was last week quoted in the local press as having made the announcement while in the country’s political capital, Dodoma that negotiations between the National Development Corporation and Sichuan Hongda Corporation of China over the necessary infrastructure were at an advanced stage.

The Mchuchuma iron ore and Liganga Coal reserves located in the Southern highlands have the potential to create an estimated 40,000 jobs to spur iron and steel industries in the country and boost coal exports.

The project will be the second largest single operation since the 1970s when China built the USED 500 million 1860-kilometer long Tanzania-Zambia Railway line {TAZARA} from Dar Es Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi,

Another senior government official disclosed that investor in the Liganga and Mchuchuma iron ore project has set aside Tshs 10 trillion {USD 625 billion} for the project implementation.

The Deputy Minister for Trade, Industry and Marketing Lazaro Nyalanda said the project is expected to contribute between 20 and 25 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Coal deposits at Mchuchuma which is located near the border of Malawi and Mozambique are provisionally estimated at 1253 million tones while iron ore deposits in the Liganga area are estimated to be 45 million tones. These are to be exploited jointly to stimulate an iron and steel industry that depends largely on the agricultural sector.

Transport Minister Omari Nundu in his part said the railway line will boost trade with neighboring Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.

“The railway line will attract passenger traffic because of the huge potential in mineral and agricultural activities in the region, said Minister Nundu.

Thd Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo reported that the government plans to spend USD 34 million in 2011.202 financial year in conducting feasibility studies and detailed design of Mtwara-Songea-Liganga railway line.

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Tanzania: Following a visit by Secretary of State Clinton Washington is injecting money into energy and infrastructure projects in Tanzania

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo.

The recent tour of Tanzania by the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Washington is injecting at least USD 206 million into energy projects in that country that will help boost the country’s power generation.

The money will be used to construct and rehabilitate 24 power sub-stations as will as install a new 100MW sub-marine power cable between the mainland and Zanzibar

The financing is part of deal of a USD 698 million grants extended to Tanzania in 2008 under the Millennium

Challenge Corporation to fund water, energy and infrastructure projects in Tanzania.

During her cent visit to Dar Es Salaam, Clinton said the success of the project will mean Tanzania can cut the present power crisis by over half and boost the country’s economic growth.

“The future of Tanzania depends on the availability of a reliable power service,” she said.

The power shortage has triggered rationing and pushed up the cost of production in the manufacturing sector.

The government plans to spend Tshs 4.7 trillion {USD 2.96 billion under a five year development program that end in 2015 to boost electricity output from 1,000MW to 2,780MW.

An American energy firm Symbion Power LLC will construct a 100MW plant at Ubungo in Dar Es Salaam and another 60MW in the lakeside northwestern City of Mwanza.

The CEO of Symbion Power Paul Hinks was quoted in the local media has government has entrusted his firm with almost USD 100 worth of electrification work across Tanzania.

Energy and Mineral Minister William Ngeleja also disclosed that talks were underway between Pan-African, TANESCO and Petroleum Development Corporation to increase gas supply from 90 million cubic feet to one million cubic feet to meet the rising demand.

“One gas unit produces 15 MW and additional supply from Symbion will step up this to 75MW,”the Minister added.

Symbion Powr management said last week it had signed an interim agreement with Tanesco to sell power to the state-owned utility. The company charges a rate of USD 4.99 per kilowatt hour.

Symbion Power and Pick Electronic Corporation based in Mount Airy, North Carolina, won a contract of USD 110 million and USD 18 million respectively, from the Millennium Challenge and Corporation account to build a sub-station and extend electricity distribution in Tanzania,the us Embassy said in its website.

Early this year Tanzania started the construction and expansion of nearly2,88o kilometers of the national power grid after it acquired USD 65 million from the MCC account.

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Tanzania: Promoting Women’s Access to Public Services – 2011 Gender-Responsive Public Service Awards: Event in Dar

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From: Hermengild Mayunga

Shared News:

Promoting Women’s Access to Public Services – 2011 Gender-Responsive Public Service Awards

Dar Es Salaam Tanzania: Posted on June 23 2011 | UNWOMEN News Sources| News

On United Nations Public Service Day, the United Nations presented the annual Public Service Awards at a ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Awardees received a trophy and a certificate of recognition. This year’s event is highly symbolic and unique as it is the first time in the history of the United Nations Public Service Award that awards were given for gender-responsive service delivery, as well as the first time that an African nation hosted the event.

The award winners presented their experiences and led discussions on how their services can be replicated and tailored to the specific circumstances of other countries. Gender-responsive service delivery awards were given to public service innovations and initiatives that improved services in any of the following ways:

1.Increased quality and affordability of services for women users;

2.Responded to particular constraints that women face in accessing services, such as security risks, childcare burdens, limited mobility and financial access issues;

3.Implemented mechanisms to support women to easily obtain information about government services; ensured that public servants are sanctioned when women’s needs are ignored or when women’s rights for service delivery are not protected;

4.Increased the ability of women to observe, monitor and analyse government decision-making and processes, including participatory budgeting and planning processes;

5.Introduced incentives and changes in employment policies, including recruitment, promotion, training, compensation and career management policies, to increase the number of women in the public sector at all levels, including those in the front line and at decision-making levels;

6.Introduced a distinctively new approach to promoting the participation of citizens, especially poor women, in policy making.

Award recipients for this category were selected by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration. The first-place winners were from India and Egypt, while the second place winners were from Korea (two) and Oman.

The innovation in India was designed to increase access to justice for poor women who are victims of sexual violence. Northern Indian states have a high incidence of violent crimes against women, and victims and their families often face threats and intimidation not only from perpetrators, but also from police. Women face crosscutting discrimination due to their status in a lower caste, a disability or displacement. In addition, these women’s testimony in the justice system is often disregarded due to discrimination and prejudice.

The innovation of the Swanchetan Society for Mental Health was to develop a 24-hour psychological centre providing trauma counselling to women who were victims of a heinous crime such as public humiliation, lynching and caste-based rape. Providing professional and moral support helped nearly eight thousand women to continue their struggle for justice. The project is the first one in which the Indian Police entered in a partnership with a civil society organization to provide support to victims and is regarded as an important milestone in the judicial system of the country.

The Egyptian winner was a health outreach programme for women. In designing this service, the Ministry of Health was guided by research conducted by the National Cancer Institute in Cairo, which found that breast cancer represented 35.1 percent of female cancers in Egypt with more than 80 percent of such cancers discovered only at highly developed stages. Insufficient efforts have been put towards early detection screenings, and many of Egypt’s rural poor do not have easy access to health care and are unable to afford proper treatment.

The Ministry of Health partnered with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to expand health care provision to women nationwide by using information and communication technologies (ICT). They developed the “Women Health Outreach Programme” (WHOP), a government-funded programme that offers free breast screening and therapeutic procedures for all Egyptian women over the age of 45 within their local communities. Breast health awareness and clinical care delivery are offered at all levels of diagnosis, as well as treatment and post-treatment care.

The first Korean winner was a programme to self-empower young women at risk of prostitution in the Seoul metropolitan area. The core of the programme was to create an empowerment system using education and employment. The programme worked with a late-night street counselling service to identify young women sex workers who might benefit from targeted early intervention programmes. These young women were enrolled in the Self-Empowerment School, and upon graduating could work in the Self-Empowerment Training Shop. Critical to the success of this programme was the cooperation with NGOs, government, and academia in order to build inclusive and sustainable services.

The other Korean winner was an online resource centre for women whose employment had been interrupted due to reasons such as familial or childcare responsibilities. The Gyeonggi Women’s Development Centre (GWDC) is dedicated to expanding women’s career capabilities and economic empowerment. Rather than solely providing education and training, GWDC focuses on career development consulting and job placement, so as to provide a comprehensive programme aimed at improving women’s careers goals and employment. Furthermore, GWDC provided gender-sensitive e-learning by offering high-quality contents and management services that specifically met women’s needs.

GWDC established the first-ever programme in the country aimed at cultivating women information specialists, and initiated a specialized programme for women entrepreneurs. In order to enhance the success of GWDC, an employability index was created to reflect the actual problems and needs of career-interrupted women. The programme also boosts female confidence and accompanies them through every step of the job application process.

The winner from Oman was an initiative by the National Association for Cancer Awareness to introduce Mobile Mammography Units (MMU) as an alternative to hospital-based radiological facilities. The units were operated by an all-female team of technologists. The project attempted to address the constraints that women faced in accessing breast cancer screening services and cancer education due to travel distance, time, and high costs. Previously, many women in the country were not aware of the importance of screening, nor were they willing to undergo the procedure as they saw it as an intrusion of privacy.

The educational information the MMUs provided was critical as was its mobility. The units travelled the country offering free mammography screening and information materials in a time-efficient and accessible manner. The Unit is equipped with a digital mammography machine and a stabilizing system and complies with all WHO regulations.

These five examples show different innovations in improving women’s access to health, education and employment services by recognizing different constraints women face, such as discrimination, gender roles, mobility, and low socio-economic status. UN Women urges all governments, public administrations and service providers to take active and decisive steps towards reformulating policies and programmes to address the biases and constraints women face with service access, and looks forward to the 2012 round of nominations for the UN gender-responsive public service awards.

The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promotes the role, professionalism and visibility of public service.

Source:
http://www.unwomen.org/2011/06/2011-gender-responsive-public-service-awards/

—
Dr Hermengild Mayunga
ORES Tanzania
P.O.BOX 1190
Songea, RUVUMA
Tanzania

Tel +255 25 2600419
Tel +255 784 520680

drmayunga@ores.or.tz
drmayunga@gmail.com
info@ores.or.tz
www.ores.or.tz

—
Kwa Nafasi za Kazi kila siku www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa

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Tanzania is seeking multi billion dollars to upgrade its ports

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo

Information emerging from the Tanzanian commercial City of Dar Es Salaam says that the Tanzania Ports Authority {TPA} is seeking for colossal amount of money to he tune of USD 800 billion to upgrade ports all over the country.

Economic analysts say the new ports will be able to accommodate more vessels, thus easing congestion and reducing the waiting time for ships.

In April 2007, the TPA commissioned a master plan study covering both sea and inland ports, which experts says will enhance the country’s economic growth.

The study proposed a new port at Mbegani in Bagamoyo to ease congestion at the Dar Es Salaam port about 75 kilometers away. A total of 40 hectare of land has been identified for the proposed new port.

The planning manager of the TPA Modest Kakusa was last week quoted by the media as saying that the feasibility study for the ports was completed in December 2008.

He said the Master Plan will work to sustain continuous growth of port traffic and provide better services to landlocked countries in Southern, Central and East Africa. The master plan will also alert to change in shipping technologies. It hoped to restore capacity-in inland ports and help develop other ports for commercial purposes.

TPA has been pursuing a strategy on private sector involvement in port operations, as well as management and training of ports investments.

Major Private Sector participation started in 2000-with the licensing of the Dar Es Salaam Container Terminal Services {TICTS}.

This year, TPA has been planning to lease its ports in Kigoma and Kasanga in Lake Tanganyika. The money accrued will be used to develop and promote licensing of port services, trade facilitation, fishing industry and environmental support.

“To enhance provision of services and cost effective port services, the TPA continued to invest in modern infrastructure, equipment and technology,” he said.

The TPA envisaged developing and managing ports to provide good services and promote logistics services in East, Central and Southern African regions.

TPA’s chairman of the board of directors Raphael Mollel says that the authority has been seeking private sector involvement in port operations, as well as management and financing of investments, adding that as an organization specified to privatization, TPA could not invest in any major capital project.

Following de-specification, Mollel said, TPA revised its development capital budget upward from USD 32 million to USD 40 million to procure critical equipment and facilities.

In July 2006, the TPA was empowered to improve port infrastructure, equipment and capacity. The authority’s long term measures include development of a new container terminal and cargo freight station at Dar Es Salaam and construction of anew at Mbegani, Bagamoyo.

The required land area for port expansion under the TPA strategy, which on the coast as well as Kigom will be financed by the World Bank, have been earmarked and acquisition process are underway.

Among the targeted ports are Dar Es Salaam, Mtwara, Tanga, Bagamoyo and Mwmbani on the coast as well as Kigoma on the Lake Tanganyika.

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Tanzania: Using Mobile Phones to Tackle Fistula in Tanzania

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from Yona Maro

Across Africa, cell phones are rapidly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. From an isolated rural village, a business owner can make a bank deposit through her phone; a farmer can access current crop prices; and an expectant mother can learn about antenatal care. And now, in Tanzania, cell phones offer a chance of treatment for women living with obstetric fistula – a painful and often ostracizing condition that follows prolonged and obstructed childbirths and causes chronic incontinence and even paralysis.

At their hospital in Dar es Salaam, CCBRT provides fistula surgery free of charge, but the high cost of transportation and accommodation still prevented fistula survivors in remote villages from seeking treatment. So CCBRT came up with a solution. Using Vodafone’s mobile banking systemM-PESA (M for “mobile” and PESA for “money” in Swahili), the institution sends money to fistula survivors to cover travel costs to the hospital in Dar es Salaam for their repair surgery.

The money is sent via SMS to fistula volunteer ambassadors, who may be former patients, health workers, or staff of nongovernmental organizations, to identify and refer women suffering from fistula for treatment. The ambassadors retrieve the money at the local Vodafone M-PESA agent and buy bus tickets for the patients. When the patient arrives at the hospital, the ambassador receives a small incentive, again via M-PESA.

http://www.unfpa.org/public/cache/offonce/home/news/pid/7697;jsessionid=BE305C507EFB272B5B02DD469078EF5C.jahia01?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ungen+%28UN+gender+equality+news+feed%29&utm_content=FeedBurner

Tanzania: Environmentalists and conservationist have sounded alarm that lesser flamingos could face extinction if Tanzania consents to the construction of Soda Ash plant in the Lake Natron

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

NEWSPAPERS in both Kenya and Tanzania have reported environmentalists in the region as having voiced concern over the renewed plan by private investors to construct a soda ash plant at Lake Natron.

They are bitterly arguing that the project would adversely affect the breeding site of the flamingos.

The environmentalists and conservationist claim that Tanzania government had shelved the construction of the plant in 2009 after it emerged that Lake Natron was the breeding site for million of lesser flamingos in East Africa.

Situated close to the border of Kenya and Tanzania, but most part of it right inside the Tanzanian territory, the volcanic lake is not far away from Kenya’s Lake Magadi, which is the site of intensive mining of salt and soda ash, Lake Natron is also an important tourist attraction site.

Wetlands International {WI} and Kenya Wildlife Services {KWS} want the multimillion dollar project halted as it would endanger the population of the Lesser Flamingos.

In a statement, WI expressed shock over on the renewed plans to continue with the project despite the vehement opposition from environmentalists and conservationists locally and the world over.

“The plans to mine at this very precious, but vulnerable lake conflicts with the government’s international commitment and could cause the loss of one of Africa’s most important wetlands of international importance, being the only breeding site of the Lesser Flamingos, “read the statement in part.

The statement stated that there have been recent announcement of the representatives of the Tanzanian government that the project would go ahead regardless of the objections.

Kenya is vehemently opposed to the project, Dr James Njogu, the head of the Conventions at the KWS said the project would affect between two and three million flamingos that breed at Lake Natron.

“Flaming migrate from various lakes in Kenya to breed at Lake Natron. Any disturbance on the lake would affect the hydrology of the lake by either dilution or pollution.”

“The Tanzania government had suggested having the plant at a distance place from the lake, but I am not sure whether they did so,” said Dr Njogu.

According to Wetlands International about 75 per cent of the Lesser Flamingo in East Africa breed at Lake Natron which is a Ramset Site.

The project was abandoned in 2008 due to the concern from the Tanzania’s National Environmental Management Council {NEMC} that the mining of soda ash in the area would adversely affect the ecology of the lake Natron and its highly importance biodiversity.

In the same year, Ramset Advisory Mission recommended that the Tanzanian government should suspend the Soda Ash project and consider completing the development of the Tanzania Wetland Strategy and other policy framework before taking any decision on the Sod ash project.

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Tanzania: Africa’s most important forum investors conference open in Dar Es Salaam

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

About 400 delegates from are gathering in Dar Es Salaam this week for a two days debate key issues facing the investment sector in Africa.

Dar hoped to use this opportunity to woo more foreign capital by hosting a forum for African investors anticipating more foreign direct investment as economies rebound globally.

The 9th African Investment {AIE}, which opened today and will close on Tuesday 19th April,2011.It is being organized by the Commonwealth Business Council in collaboration with the East African Community.

One of the key issues will be how to attract investments into EAC and to tackle challenges faced. The decisions made at the Dar meeting are likely to shape trade investment in the region.

President Jakaya Kikwete said in his opening address that the meeting will also focus on promoting linkages between African economic clusters to attract new investment.”We will be pleased to welcome investors with a long term interests in Tanzania and the EAC,” said the President in a message to the conference.

Kikwete will tomorrow host fellow Presidents Pierre Nkurunzinbza of Burundi, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya,Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for the 9th African Investment round table whose main focus will be on doing business in East African Community.

Other issues include; accelerating East African investment, business in the EAC, enhancing regional investment and trade in the COMESA-EAC- SADC tripartite, public-private partnership for infrastructure development on energy, transport, communications, housing and construction.

Dr. Mohan Kaul the Director General of the Commonwealth Business Council {CBC} the organizer of the event ,said the forum provides a platform to bring investors and projects together to showcase new opportunities, enhance African trade and investment and to build business partnerships.

Dr Kaul said USD one billion worth of projects was up for discussion at the same forum last year in Ghana where more than 200 business meeting were held with 10 memorandum of understanding signed.

Another official of the CBC said the forum will feature a project portfolio of investment proposals that need funding, equity or business partnership in the region. The Dar meeting is expected to provide potential investors an opportunity to establish strong partnership and explore investment opportunities in key sectors such as ICT, financial services, tourism, infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing and environment.

“Summaries on potential projects will also be available in advance to interested investors and partners, and project holders will be available for on-to-one meetings,” said the official.

The project will be organized according to their countries of origins and sectors they fall under .Each project will have its business plans and investment requirements and technical knowledge needed.

Apart from investment opportunities, other issues to be discussed include the opportunities for East African business improving access to finance capital markets banking and financial services, agribusiness and food security and natural resources and mining. This year Forum will be held along the Summit of the EAC Head of States involving high level dialogue on investment with EAC heads of state.

The forum, which kicks off on Sunday, comes at a time when Tanzania is looking for strategies to increase its FDI to over USD 700 million.

In 2009, the FDI dropped markedly from USD 679 million the year before as a result of the global cash crunch.

Tanzania’s economy depends mainly on tourism, mining and agriculture. And its communications, energy, manufacturing, financial services and transport and attracting rising investor interest.

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Tanzania and Uganda plans a multi billion dollars new transport corridor from Tanga to Kampala

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

PLANS are in advance state for the two Eastern African nations of Tanzania and Uganda to establish a multi billion dollars joint venture to develop a new railway line and ports on Lake Victoria to cope up with increased trade from the East African hinterland.

It is moderately estimated that the plan would cost close to USD 2.7 billion.And it will involve the construction of the new 800 kilometers long railway line that will link a proposed deep water port at Mwambani Bay in Tanga and ends up in Arusha nearly 400 kilometers away from Lake Victoria and a new extension will be needed to link it up with the port of Musoma about 400 kilometers to the west.

Te rail line will link up with the port of Musoma with onward connection to Port Bell in Kampala and Juba in South Sudan.

The extension is expected to pass through the world famous Serengeti National Game Park, something which the environmentalists, conservationists had vehemently opposed to arguing that with noisy trains passing through the wild animal sanctuary something which would not augur well. This is what had caused the plan being shelved during the reign of the late President Julius Kambarage Nyerere when the idea was first muted in the late 1980s.

The officials of the two countries have said the project is provisionally estimated to cost USD 2.7 billion, out of which USD 1.9 billion is for the construction of the railway line, USD 672.6 million for the development of Mwambani Port and USD 72. Million for the development of Musoma dock.

In a well researched article appearing in its business page, the EASTAFRICAN weekly quoted the Tanzanian Minister for Transport Omar Nundu as saying that the partnership plan includes rehabilitation and upgrading of the Port Bell pier and the construction of a new Kampala inland port in Uganda.

The Minister further explained that the plan will also see Tanga and Musoma ports dedicated to handling cargo destined for Uganda and Southern Sudan.

The cost of transporting goods in the region could reduce significantly in the next five years as another EAC partner Kenya too plans a new railway connecting the port of Mombasa to Kampala.

In the joint venture, Tanzania and Uganda are seeking USD 250 million fresh capitals to upgrade a separate jointly owned 100 year old imperial gauge rail line built during the colonial era.

A 25 year concessional deal signed in 2006 with Rift Valley Railway {RVR} consortium has so far failed to revamp the ailing railway network. This consortium is made up of o South African Sheltam Trade, Mirambo Holdings and Primefuesl Ltd. Others partners include Kenyan private equity firm Trans-Century and two other investors- Kenya’s Centum Investment Ltd and Babcock and Brown of Australia. And last week Trans-Century disclosed it plans to inject USD 300 million into RVR.

The funds to be disbursed in the next five years will be spent on modernizing the Kenya-Uganda Railway in which the private equity firm holds a principle interest of 34 per cent.

“The transport division is focused on the turnaround of the Rift Valley Railway and recapitalization of the railway line,” said Trans-0Century CEO Gachao Kiuna.

While cargo volume at the Kenyan port of Mombasa has grown to over 19 million tones as at the end of last year from seven million in 1980s, volume transported by RVR have declined from 4.8 tones to 1.5 million tones in the same period.

The proposed new railway will be an important link between ports in Kenya and Tanzania and the neighboring countries of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

According to information attributed to Tanzanian Transport Minister Omar Nundu, rehabilitation of wagon ferries and building of a new ship to service Lake Victoria are also among projects stipulated in the joint plan.

President Museveni of Uganda has repeatedly said that the Musoma was “lifeline” of the Uganda of his dreams, adding that freight will be conveyed from Musoma dock by ferry to Port Bell pier – about 350 kilometers inside Uganda. A rail connection runs via Tororo to Gulu – nearly 600 kilometers on the Pakwach branch. North Gulu, a new line of roughly 250 kilometers will have to be constructed to Juba, and a further 550 kilometers to the Wau railhead in Southern Sudan.

The proposals arise from the continued difficulties with getting freight from the port of Mombasa to Uganda, and to Southern Sudan.

The cost of Kenyan route are said to be prohibitive and there are serious delays. The Dar Es Salaam port has its own logistics problems too. Figures made available shows the Dar Es Salaam dock accounts for only one per cent of all trade from Uganda with 99 per cent passing through the Kenyan port o Mombasa.

However, the Ugandan business community is of the opinion that Dar and Kampala will have to make some concessions to promote the route.

“To start with, Dar Es Salaam need to talks with Kampala not to charge tax freight when we use the Central Corridor. This will be a good enticement” says Busingye Rwabogo, the Mukwano Industries operations general manager.

With a rated capacity for 4.1 million tones of dry cargo,6 million tones of bulk liquids, 3.1 tones of general cargo and a million cargo of containerized traffic, the port of Dar Es Salaam is said to be severely stretched.

Dar Port handles about 95 per cent f Tanzania’s international trade in addition to serving neighboring landlocked countries of Malawi, Zambia,Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo {DRC}.Development at the port of Tanga with current annual handling of 500,000 tons will reduce the load on Dar Es Salaam port meaningfully.

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Russia & Tanzania: Russians return to the uranium mining projects in Tanzania after abandoning the deal

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

The latest reports emerging from Dar Es Salaam says the Tanzanian uranium mining project is back on track after an Australian firm Mantra Resources Ltd agreed to lower its offer to Russian Russia’s JSC Atomredmentzoloto {ARMZ} from USD 1.16 billion to USD 944 million.

ARMZ had said last week it had shelved plan to purchase the Mkuju River uranium assets in Southern Tanzania from Mantra over the recent Japanese nuclear plant crisis.

The transaction, to be closed in July this year, will see ARMZ acquiring on of the issued share capital in Mantra Ltd including Mkuju River project in Tanzania.

Construction of the mining plant in Southern Tanzania will start in the first quarter of 2011 with operations beginning in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Two weeks ago, ARMZ had given Mantra Ltd, a notice that the on-going nuclear crisis in Japan could hurt its operations. ARMZ, however, indicated that it was willing to exlo5re how the transaction could proceed by way of an alternative approach.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Mantra Ltd in Tanzania, Tony Devlin said the revised transaction is in the Mantra’s best interest taking into consideration the current global equity market condition and increased uncertainty for the uranium sector.

Devlin further stated that the capital cost for the construction of the mining plant including all associated infrastructure stands at USD 298 million.

Tanzania’s Minister for Energy and Minerals William Ngeleja was quoted this week by the influential EASTAFRICAN regional weekly as saying that the Mkuju River Project is shaping up into a truly world-class venture and has the potential in its first phase of development to position the country as the third and perhaps even the second largest producer of uranium in Africa.

Minister Ngeleja said the pre-feasibility study in March 2010 indicated that, once developed the mine would produce 1,650 tones of uranium oxide a year thus overtaking the US – – which produced 1,560 tones in 2009 – – to become the eighth largest producer in the world. Tanzania, he added, “will produce three times more uranium oxide than South Africa.”

The mining plant will have an average annual production of 1,650 tones per annum with the potential to expand production in the second phase of the project And this will be the second major mining development in South Eastern Tanzania, bringing jobs to an underdeveloped region with a foreign direct investment of USD 450 million generating approximately USD 250 million in annual foreign currency receipts.

The government of Tanzania expects about USD 630 million in royalties, income and employee taxes directly from the project based on the 15 year estimated life span of the mine.

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Tanzania: Nation headed for big trouble with Egypt for its diversion of Lake Victoria waters

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo.

Information emerging out of the Tanzanian capital city, Dar Es Salaam says that country is headed for another diplomatic row with the two northern African states of Egypt and the Sudan over the decision to draw water for domestic use from Lake Victoria.

This will be the second project using Lake Victoria water, which will be drawn for domestic use in Tabora Region, 278 kilometers south of the lake.

Designs for the project are to be drawn up this coming July with the implementation slated fir January 2013 and completion in December 2014.

The first project, in 2004, was implemented in two phases under which Lake Victoria water was pumped overland to benefit residents of Kahama and Shinyanga towns, about 176 kilometers to the south of the lake.

The USD 85.1 million project will serve a population of 420,000.It is reportedly raising concern in Egypt and Sudan, the main interested parties in the River Nile, of which Lake Victoria is a major source.

The influential EASTAFRICAN weekly, this week quoted the press attaché in the Egyptian embassy in Dar Es Salaam, Mr Ahmed Abdul Fatah, as saying the Egyptians have not been informed about the current project.

The two Nile Basin treaties signed during the British Colonial era in 1929 and in 1959 between Britain and the Egyptian governments restricted the carrying out of any project on the Nile River tributaries or their lakes that would adversely affect its water level without Cairo’s consent

And in order to make sure that the agreement is applied to the letter, Egypt has posted a team of military water engineers who are permanently station in Jinja Town, which is the source o the River Nile, a Ugandan City, Uganda’s second largest city, which is located about 90 kilometer to the east of the capital, Kampala.

The same Egyptian government has posted its water experts attached to its embassies in Nairobi, Kampala and Dar Es Salaam whose main responsibilities including the monitoring of Nile River water level on daily basis.

However, the Draft Agreement over the Nile River Basin Co-operative Framework, Section 15, all the countries except Egypt and the Sudan, take the position that the treaties in question are illegal, arguing that they were negotiated and signed before independence for Tanganyika, Kenya Uganda and the other riparian states.

The Framework involves nine countries among them are five member states of the East African Community {EAC} and Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia which are not ember of the EAC.

The Deputy Director of the Urban Water Ministry in Tanzania Elizabeth Kungu was quoted by the media this week as saying that the project would cost Tshs. 255 billion, which is equivalent to USD 176 million.

She noted that the project would be partly funded by the Tanzania government and its development partners including the World Bank under the water sector development program.

Asked about Egypt and Sudan concerns, she said that based on o the previous experience ”The quantity of water drawn or to be drawn for both Shinyanga and Tabora towns is very little compared with the size of the lake.”

Lake Victoria, the second largest sweet water in the world covered 68,000 square kilometers bordering Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Its maximum depth is 80 meters.

A[art from Tabora town, the regional headquarters, the planned project will also benefit Nzega,Igunga Kigongwa,Isaka and Muhesa towns as well as the residents of 76 villages situated along the pipeline.

Tanzania Vice President Mohammed Gharib Bilal described the project as a solution to the persistent water problems in area covered by the project.

In 1910, the Germany had contemplated using Lake Victoria waters for irrigation, transport and production of electricity in the dry parts of Mwanza,Shinyanga,Tabora and Singida regions.

Official document at the Ministry of Water reveals that the ideas of taking water from the Lake Victoria and supplying to the dry Central area of the country, dates back to the German’s colonial era in Tanganyika.

However, when the British took the control of the then Tanganika Territory from the Germans following the defeat of its forces in the East African military campaign during the First World ,the emphasis on using the Lake Victoria water into the dry Central zone of Dodoma and Singida which are naturally dry. Instead the use of Lake Victoria water has ever since been limited to the use in areas around the lake.

There have been persistent calls by Tanzania, experts for the government to extend for the use of Lake Victoria waters to end water shortage and create an environment for irrigated agriculture and economic development.

Ends

Irland & Tanzania: The Irish Multinational engineering company is to built gas pipeline in Tanzania

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo

AN Irish construction firm and civil engineering company, Castle town Enterprises has expressed interests in constructing of new pipeline to transport natural gas from the Songo Songo gas field to the capital Dar Es Salaam.

Information emerging from Dar says the project is intended to add 200 megawatts{MW} of electricity to the national grid.

The Chief Executive Officer of the firm Mr Charlie Mc Cauley told newsmen in Dar Es Salaam last week that his firm also plans to build and operate a 200 MW open cycle gas fired power plant that could be expanded to 500 MW in the future.

Tanzania’s Minister for Energy and Minerals William Ngeleja said this project comes as good news to Tanzania which has been grappling with power shortage and that the government has already replied to the Castle town Enterprises Limited inviting the firm to open negotiations with both Tanzania Electricity Supplies Company {TANESCO} and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation{TPDC}.

McCauley said Castletown Enterprises has approached the government and hoped to enter into a memorandum of understanding {MOU} to formalize relationship., and enable the firm to begin the required task.

If the deal is approved, the planned pipeline would be the second to carry natural gas from Songo Songo field 200 kilometers south of the commercial City of Dar Es Salaam to the Ubungo power plant.

Songas Limited owns and operates the first pipeline which was completed in 2004.And according to Minister Ngeleja,it took least a year to lay the existing gas pipeline “and to be laid by Castletown would take much shorter period of time because they won’t necessarily have to start creating new leeway and the current is 60 meters wide, which is big enough to accommodate anther pipeline.”

The Northern Irish company, which is located in Limvady near Belfast, is to discuss the best possible location for the new power plant with TANESCO officials”, he added.

“The two groups will have to sit down and jointly decide where to put up the new plant because TANESCO being the country’s electricity supplier, will play a bigger role in making sure the project comes on board in the shortest possible period of time,” he said, adding that “It is not in their interest as well that the generation of 200MW gets into the national grid sooner than later given the crisis that we have been going through.”

The government said the new pipeline is expected to be bigger than the current one, which has a diameter of16 mm. The one Castletown wants to construct would at least 24mm in diameter.

According to the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation {TPDC}, a second pipeline is needed because the existing one cannot accommodate any more users unless capacity at the supply side is increased.

Songas Limited has already applied to the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority {EWURA} for tariff adjustment so that it can begin increasing the output of natural gas from Songo Songo.

Tanzania has gas reserves at Songo Songo,Mnazi Bay, and Mkuranga. Gas from Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay is used to generate power and some supplied to the industries in Dar Es Salaam, while a lesser amount is converted compressed natural gas{CNG} to power motor vehicles.

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Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania in dispute over oil and natural gas exploration

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo.

Reports appearing in local media revealed that Zanzibar has triggered fresh confrontation and dispute with the union government over what it calls unnecessary delays in the removal of oil related matters from the Union Article established in 1964. The country has yet to confirm the commercial viability of the recently discovered deposits, though.

The Article of the Union is the document establishing the United Republic of Tanzania – – uniting the then Tanganyika {mainland} and Zanzibar {Isles}, which came into effect on April 26,1964.

The Article, approved by the then President Julius Kambarage Nyerere {Tanganyika} and Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume {Zanzibar}, lists matters falling under the union government, which apart from oil, includes finance, international affairs, defense and security. higher education, and home affairs.

The media report quoted Ismail Jussa Ladhu, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Isles main opposition party, the Civic United Front {CUF}, as having told newsmen that Zanzibar expected President Jakaya Kikwete’s government to resolve the matter in a timey fashion.

Jussa Ladhu, who is also sits in the Union Parliament representing Stone Town constituency, said that after Zanzibar’s House of Representatives passed the Bill approving the matter, the Chief Minister of Zanzibar wrote to the Prime minister of the Union on the issue, ”but nothing has been done.”

“The government’s slowness is preventing the Zanzibar government from undertaking any substantial decision on oil and natural gas exploration across the Isles,” he said.

It is estimated that the on-going oil exploration could take up to seven years to complete.

However, a source, close to the Zanzibar President’s office, is reported to have said that the semi-autonomous government has continued to restrict exploration companies from carrying out activities regardless of their possession of operational licenses.

Zanzibar would like to see oil produced offshore, onshore and in deep sea under Block 8-12 managed solely for the benefits of the Isles

Under the existing petroleum Act of 1980,Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation {TPDC} is the only body mandated to license, monitor, and supervise exploration and production of oil and natural gas on the entire territory of Tanzania – – Zanzibar included – – whether offshore, onshore or deep sea.

However, for a number of years, Zanzibar politicians have been expressing discontent over TPDC’s monopoly power over Zanzibar, on the grounds that its establishment did not satisfy the requirements of bodies meant to cover both the Mainland and Zanzibar.

A Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office Responsible On the Union Matters, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was quoted by the influential Weekly the EASTAFRICAN this week as saying that the removal of oil and natural gas from the list of Union matters was being dealt with by “higher authorities” and therefore was no longer being discussed in the inter-sector meetings that review Union challenges periodically.

The latest meeting took place on March 19, 2011, Hassan said, adding that the resolution of the matter is long over due.

Exploration carried on by Antrim Energy of Canada shows that the Pemba-Zanzibar block has a proven hydrocarbon system as evidenced by Tandaua oil seep on Pemba Island, and oil shows in previous exploration wells. Multiple source rocks and petroleum reserves are anticipated and numerous projects mapped.

There are 17 oil and gas exploration companies carrying out exploration in Tanzania, mainly in the deep sea and along the coastal areas.

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Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania in dispute over oil and natural gas exploration