Author: Giza Mdoe

Covid 19 wreaked havoc to the economy and no sector was worse hit than the tourism and hospitality sector. Air travel restrictions, mandatory quarantine of arrivals and the shutting of businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors along with crumple of demand have led to an unprecedented shock.

So bad was the situation that last year, tourism operators in Tanzania forecast revenue contractions of 80% or more while the World Bank’s 14th Tanzania Economic Update (TEU) showed that Tanzania’s economic growth slowed down to 2.5% from the 6.9% growth reported the previous year.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel, with eased travel restrictions, Tanzania is witnessing a revamp in both the tourism and hospitality sectors. Global top brands like Onomo Hotels have opened shop in the commercial capitol Dar es Salaam.

Meet ONOMO General Manager Mark Soderlund as he gives us an inside perspective of the …

After suffering turbulence for the last few years, South African Airways (SAA), which was on the brink of being grounded, has got new wings from none other than the hands of the private sector.

SAA, South Africa’s flagship carrier links well over 40 local and international destinations across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania. The carrier was also the first African carrier to sign with Star Alliance back in April 2006.

However, after a few years of struggling to stay afloat, the airline faced a lot of criticism and the final blow was the Covid-19 outbreak that literally anchored the aviation industry. Ailing airlines like the SAA could not recover from the devastating impact of border closures and restricted travel, and finally, the government has, under duress, had to give up control of the flagship carrier.

In a recent announcement, South Africa’s Department of Public Enterprises has …

With $571 million in loan money at stake, Tanzania that has until now withheld all Covid-19 data has announced that it will now make the statistics public. Question is, if withholding the data stayed public panic and allowed production to continue?  How will announcing the data affect the country’s economy? Will the public continue to operate business as usual or will fear impede productivity?

There is no doubt that Tanzania is one of the few countries in the world that had positive economic growth all through the worst of Covid-19 outbreaks. Granted the rate of growth fell, but it remained on an upward trajectory nonetheless. Many pundits have attributed this positive economic growth to the country’s ‘lax’ border control and zero lockdowns during the entire time.

Further still, Tanzania stopped reporting cases of Covid-19 on April 29, 2020 when the country had 509 infections, 183 recoveries and 21 deaths. Further, …

The future is here and the future is digital. Who can in these modern times imagine doing business without Internet?

Tanzania is no exception, from farmers checking for current product prices online and SMEs growing their market via Social Media, to international conglomerates banking online and governments twitting policies changes, life as we know it, has gone digital.

That been the fact, the need for safe, reliable and affordable internet services is ever growing. While we all use the internet but here is a quick question, do you know your Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

Since 2011, Flashnet has been meeting and exceeding business Information Technology (IT) needs covering both connectivity to productivity; From Connectivity, Managed IT, Cloud, Unified Security and Collaboration tools for your business like the celebrated Office 365, a partnership with Microsoft to provide you tailored network services or the Zoho Workplace, an application suite built for unified …

Will issuing of marijuana licenses to indigenous South Africans increase financial inclusion? That is the big question, or rather an unnecessary question that we a been forced to pose just to make it abundantly clear that, what is good for the goose, is good to the gender.

It is a rhetorical question to ask whether it will be of financial benefit to issue licenses to grow and sell a profitable, highly demanded plant with a readily available market. That is the plight of indigenous South Africans who allege that they are been side stepped in the issuing of marijuana licenses and effectively been excluded from the related financial benefits.

The financial benefits do not only end with increased household income for the indigenous but it will also translate to increased income for the government in terms of taxes, fees and foreign exchange from exports.

This report confirms that by …

The Republic of Burundi has a new president, it has taken steps to rebuild regional and international relations and its economy is starting to pull up, as such, leaders of the East African Community (EAC) are vouching in favor of the country and imploring the European Union, it is time to lift sanctions.d

The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against the Republic of Burundi back in 2015 when the late President Pierre Nkurunziza extended his tenure in office seeking a third term. At that time, army officials in the country are reported to have attempted a coupe that did not succeed.

Speaking to the press mid this week, the Secretary-General of the East African Community (EAC), Hon. Dr. Peter Mathuki appealed to the European Union (EU) member states to lift sanctions against Burundi saying, ‘the country has opened a new page and was ready to move forward.’

“I appeal to …

While the world is building off the hype that going green or carbon offsets are the new future, we here in Africa are building a pipeline aimed to continue to destroy the earth. Is it fair then that Africa doesn’t really matter in the grand “reset” of the global order, where western countries and companies are coming to dictate what needs to be done in Africa, as a means to drive profit? Much needs to be considered as we Africans are moving toward building energy economies.

It is the 21st Century, twenty plus years into the new millennium; we are a civilized learned people. We have digitized, gone paperless, our phones are smarter than us and we drive, or rather are driven by electric cars. …

Nature is in crisis, warns the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and as such, it calls on world leaders meeting for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) virtual summit (May-June), to pass the 30×30 plan, i.e. to turn 30% of the Earth into protected areas.

Led by Tanzania’s Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, who serves as the Executive Secretary for the UN Biodiversity Convention, the CBD is of the view that the more land is set aside, the more the planet can revive itself. 

Ongoing degradation of oceans, lands, and freshwater systems is destroying the planet’s ability to support life. It is so far reported that already up to a million species worldwide face extinction. …

Consider this, the first US 100 dollar bill note was issued in 1862 and the version that you know now, the Federal Reserve note featuring the US founding Father Benjamin Franklin on the foreside,  was actually launched in 1914. This means that if your great, great, great grandfather happened to bury a chest full of US100 dollar bills since then, you could still today unearth it and the bill would be accepted as legal tender i.e. the same bill note is still in circulation today. 

 Well not quite but you get the idea.  Actually, the US100 dollar bill that is used today came into circulation on July 13, 1969 and as of December 2018, the average life of a $100 bill in circulation is approximately 30 years before it is replaced due to wear. …

Nonetheless, production remains very low, and this is true for most other parts of the continent as well. Even though Africa has some of the world’s largest water bodies and is surrounded by the Atlantic on the West and the Indian Ocean on the East, the Mediterranean Sea in the North and the merging of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to the South, the continent contributes only a small percentage of the global fish supply. 

Tanzania is looking to change this fact. Following a presidential order to boost fish production, the country is embarking on a gigantic project to harvest 12 tonnes of fish per month.  Undertaken by the country’s National Service (military branch) the project is expected to also produce more than 200,000 fish seeds.…