Author: Giza Mdoe

Giza Mdoe is an experienced journalist with 10 plus years. He's been a Creative Director on various brand awareness campaigns and a former Copy Editor for some of Tanzania's leading newspapers. He's a graduate with a BA in Journalism from the University of San Jose. Contact me at giza.m@mediapix.com

A tea picking machine. These machines are replacing tea pickers in Kenya. www.theexchange.africa

Justice Makau’s ruling was as follows, “I find as decided in the Court of Appeal decision, the petitioner has a right to mechanise and adopt technology in its operations. The matter in dispute is therefore effectively concluded and settled in terms stated.”

If the cry of the workers’ Union is true, then this ruling threatens more than 50,000 workers’ jobs and allegedly, already over 10,000 tea pickers have lost their jobs to the machines.

However, the odds are pinned against the peasants, the Kenya Tea Growers Association says the loss of jobs has nothing to do with the machines but rather ‘…tea companies reducing their workforce through natural attrition.…

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COVID23

AFDB

Tanzania: The government, through the Central Bank of Tanzania has successfully kept the economy not only afloat but reasonably expanding even in the face of the global pandemic. because monetary policy staving off effects of covid on the economy.

The Tanzania government has kept its resolve to keep the economy liquid by ensuring there is enough credit for the private sector. As reports the Central Bank, the government has maintained what it describes as an ‘accommodative monetary policy.’

Thanks to this ‘accommodative’ monetary policy, the government of Tanzania has managed to boost credit flows to the private sector and thus managed to support recovery of the economy from the adverse effects of COVID-19.

The monetary policy of Tanzania has been to increase supply of credit to the private sector by using several means including lowering minimum reserve rates at the Central Bank for commercial banks and on the other …

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Zanzibari women along the shores of the Indian Ocean. www.theexchange.africa

Detailing on the source of the funding and its uses, the president said the US$100 million  (over TShs230 billion) is from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a loan to Tanzania, and another US$100 million is for the Isles.

“The IMF fund will be directed to health, education, water and power sectors, as well as economically empowering wananchi (citizens/the public),” local media quoted President Mwinyi.

The president went ahead and gave a very detailed explanation of the planned use of the funding detailing each sector and the allocated amount and then he got to the part about funding to support businesses.…

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Huaxin Cement launch. The company is targeting exporting cement from Tanzania. www.theexchange.africa
  • Tanzania's cement demand is estimated to have clocked 5.9Mt and is growing fast.
  • Maweni Limestone Ltd will be China’s first African entity producing cement on the continent instead of importing.
  • The newly purchased plant by Huaxin Cement has already been upgraded to a production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr.

If there is a booming industry in Tanzania, it is the cement industry – an industry that has more than doubled in production in under a decade.

As of 2011, Tanzania was producing 2.4Mt annually, a figure that has shot up to 6.5Mt as of 2020.

Compared to the previous year, the production volume of cement grew by 44.5 per cent and is associated with rising construction activity in the country.

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Another marker of how well the industry is doing is the amount of investment the sector is getting annually. Consider the most recent buyout of Maweni Limestone Ltd by China’s Huaxin 

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Logging is considered one of the main causes of deforestation and related climate change effects. www.theexchange.africa

To discourage the use of firewood and charcoal, the European Union (EU) has committed to fund renewable energy solutions specifically designed to set up and support a sustainable cooking solution program.

EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania, Ambassador Manfredo Fanti announced the EU led program late last year in the capital, Dodoma. At the launch, the diplomat said the initiative is part of the EU’s efforts to mitigate climate change through the use of renewable energy solutions for cooking.

However, what is interesting here is that increase in the use of firewood and charcoal is not in rural Tanzania but in the urban centres.…

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Radioactive material should be disposed safely by world standards. www.theexchange.africa

Toxic substances that are contained in e-waste contaminate the soil; however, they do not stop with the topsoil.

Heavy metals such as mercury, lithium, lead and barium leak through the earth all the way to the table water contaminating groundwater.

Now groundwater is the basic source of all water that we consume because groundwater is the water that eventually resurfaces as springs, ponds, streams, rivers and lakes.…

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A railway cuts through one of the world's largest slums, Kibera in Nairobi Kenya. www.theexchange.africa

When the Head of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat told an executive panel in Washington, DC the fact that: ‘Africa is importing too excessively and manufacturing too little…’ what was the expected reaction from the orchestrators of so-called ‘Africa trade support programs’ the likes of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)?

That maybe they will be enlightened to some new ‘fair trade’ concept that they are not aware of or maybe they will be moved to—maybe cut back on their exports to Africa?

Both sides would do well to recall what is buried in the shallow graves, engraved thus: ‘When East African countries suggested ending import of second-hand clothing to boost their own garment manufacturing industries, AGOA contracts forced them to abandon the idea and continue wearing used American apparel.’

When the high ranking African delegate, Wamkele Mene, suggested before top US economic diplomats that ‘…the continent…

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banking in zimbabwe

Tanzania Telecom charges:

Tanzanians are forced to reach deeper into their pockets as the government has increased the cost of performing mobile money transfers. Effective July of this year, Tanzania’s have seen the cost to send or withdraw money shoot up to the roof.

The government, through parliament past a bill to hike the charges arguing the extra tax is needed for national development projects. The government amended the Electronic and Postal Communication Act (CAP 306) a move that allowed it to impose a levy of on mobile money transactions depending on the amount sent and withdrawn.

Tanzania Telecom chargesAt 17 per cent, Tanzania’s excise rate on mobile phone services is the second-highest in Africa, second only to Zambia.

The amount is an increase from the earlier 14.5 per cent that was raised back in 2014. At that time it was explained that the levy increase was meant to compensate the government…

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Plastic pollution. Recycling funding does more to address the challenge. www.theexchange.africa

Plastic Pandemic Africa:

Did you know, 79 percent of all plastic ever produced ends up in a dump, landfill or some water body and only 9 percent is ever recycled? All across the world plastic packaging is clogging city sewer systems, leading to flooding, polluting water sources leading to contamination and destruction of biodiversity both on land and marine life as well.

Abandoned plastic goods create breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and can leach toxic additives such as styrene and benzene as they decompose.

Various laws are now been passed to help control the use of plastics around the world. For example, in East Africa, an area with a population of 186 million people, a law is passed to ban the manufacture, sale, import and use of certain plastic bags across all its six member states.

Likewise in October 2018 the European Union Parliament approved a ban on a number of …

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African cows milk capability.

African cows milk capability:

On average, dairy cows in Africa produces an estimated 540 litres of milk per lactation, by contrast, their cousins in the US produce up to 10,479 litres, that is more than 20 times more milk per lactation cycle.

What causes this difference, why are African dairy cows producing so much less milk than their counterparts elsewhere in world? The simple answer is the breed type.

However, there is also the question of the quality of their feeds and forage.  Simply put, ‘the more nutritious cows’ diets are, the more and better quality milk they produce.’

Small-scale farmers – of which there are about 33 million in Africa, contributing up to 70% of the continent’s food supply – usually cannot afford more nutritious feed.

In Tanzania, the livestock sector accounts for 10% of GDP (Bukuku, 1993). The livestock sector is dominated by smallholder owners who constitutes 99% …

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