Author: Giza Mdoe

With numerous international companies and organizations operating in Tanzania’s rural areas, input by this sector has huge direct impact on the related communities.

Support ranges from digging of wells to funding irrigation and smart agriculture projects. There is also the matter of lack of adequate financing and poor sanitation all of which gravely hold back social and economic growth across the country.

Also, as the minister pointed out, through CSR, companies have the opportunity to help the government increase water supply by digging wells for rural communities and by protecting water catchment areas in places they operate.…

Unfortunately, even with an increased power supply, electricity is mostly used for lighting but the vast part of the community still relies on biomass ‘…which makes up close to 90% of the total primary energy consumption in Tanzania.’

According to REA, this reliance on biomass leads to the deforestation of 100,000 hectares every year and only about a quarter of this is ever reforested. At the moment, at least 63.5% of the households in Tanzania Mainland use firewood as the main source of energy for cooking which is the main cause of deforestation along with the clearing of forests for cultivation.

Another 26.2% of Tanzanians rely on charcoal for cooking and another 5.1% use, liquified petroleum gas and a mere 3 per cent use electricity. These figures show that even though there is an increased supply of electricity there is still profound destruction of forests and the atmosphere through deforestation …

A road here and a railway there can never equate to bloodshed, torture endured, families separated, a history lost, a culture destroyed, a people lost. Because of colonisation modern-day Africans no longer know who they are or what their heritage is. 

They look up to the Caucasians as the embodiment of beauty, progress, of reason, none the wiser that it is their forefathers in Puntland and Ohir, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, that brought civilization to the world.

2022 Africa Day must be about recognition of Africa, re-branding Africa and re-establishing Africa’s position in the global socio-economic and political arena. On this Africa Day we must not only ask what is Africa but who is Africa. …

With over 5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves (as of 2016) that should be the story of Sudan, a story of wealth, not poverty, a story of prominence, not conflict, but the opposite is true.

Even though Sudan ranks an impressive 23rd in the world’s list of oil rich countries and accounts for about 0.3% of the world’s total oil reserves, the country continues to squirm in abject poverty.

 “The oil story in Sudan is one of controversy, a messy tale of money, conflict and power enmeshed in the country’s decades-long conflict,” writes Elzahra Jadallah in an article titled ‘The Dark Side of Sudan’s Oil.’

There are at least five major oil drilling and processing sites in the country and these are the epicentres of conflict both within Sudan and the seceded South Sudan. Since Sudan controls the only pipeline that both nations use to transport their oil, the …

The EACOP is a 1,443km pipeline that is been constructed at a value of 3.5 Billion USD. These funds are been directly injected into the economies of Uganda and Tanzania effectively increasing their FDI by over 60 % during the construction phase alone.

The magnanimous project is been constructed and operated through a shareholding approach among several stakeholders including the government of Uganda through the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), the government of Tanzania through the Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), France’s Totalenergies and China’s CNOOC.

It is expected that through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, the region’s East Africa’s oil potential. It will effectively attract investors and companies to explore the region’s oil potential. Further still, as new infrastructure projects commence in line with the pipeline, it will greatly contribute to the enhancement of the central corridor between Uganda and Tanzania.…

To push and advocate to circular economy uptake around the globe, the European Union (EU) launched the SWITCH to Circular Economy Value Chains project. The SWITCH to Green (S2G) project is designed to accelerate the uptake of circular practices.

SWITCH aims to improve the business environment and targets value chain actors to increase awareness as the basis to facilitate transformation.

“The overall objective is to support the circular economy transition, thereby contributing to sustainable growth, low carbon and climate resilient development, decent jobs’ creation, and safer, healthier and pollution-free environment,”

The project is designed to deliver tools and services to support the overall coherence and coordination of the EU international partnerships in the green circular economy model. The SWITCH to Green Facility experts work to provide direct support in integrating the Circular Economy across the related value chains from the producers to the final consumers.…

The goal here is to have more companies register on the island to increase Zanzibar’s internal revenue through taxes and related fees. The move is also expected to create employment on the island as companies open subsidiaries they will naturally have to hire.

Overall, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF ), last year’s growth of around 4 per cent is expected to pick up to about 5½ per cent this year and to then maintain a steady growth of the next few years, assuming no other pandemic strikes that are.

Ceterisperibus, should the economic reforms announced by the new administration and the envisaged improvements in the business climate materialize, then medium-term growth could reach 6 per cent, says the IMF.…

Stakeholders in Tanzania are lobbying for asking the government to establish a department to research and preserve traditional foods and seeds which are feared to be in danger of extinction. “The loss of diverse diets is directly linked to diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes and obesity,” warns

While the new seed varieties (as well as animal hybrids) are been praised for their fast growth and resistance to disease, the question remains over their nutritional value. There are also concerns that the loss of organic traditional plant and animal varieties places the world at risk of losing traditional medicines.

At a recent Agricultural Ecology (Agroecology) training workshop held in Moshi, Tanzania stakeholders emphasized that; “From providing cures to deadly diseases to maintaining natural ecosystems and improving the overall quality of life, the benefits of preserving threatened and endangered species are invaluable.”…

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has inked a massive grant agreement to the tune of $400,000 to modernize the regional financial market infrastructure in West Africa.

The funding is to be extended via the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) and among other things is meant to fund the creation of a digital platform to automate securities issuance for the regional financial market.

In a press release, the AfDB said the funding will also help reduce the holding period preceding subscription allocations and registration on the said digital platform.…

As would be expected, Total rebutted the claims. Its first move was to make public the related project social and environmental studies and issue a statement in which it pledged transparency.

The company admits that; “The projects for the development of the oil and gas resources of the Lake Albert region and the cross-border pipeline are situated in a sensitive social and environmental context that requires special measures for the environment and the rights of the local communities.”

In a follow-up statement, the investors maintained that; “All the partners are committed to implementing these projects in an exemplary manner and taking into highest consideration the biodiversity and environmental stakes as well as the local communities’ rights and within the stringent environmental and social performance standards of the International Finance Corporation.”…