Author: Giza Mdoe

The move makes Tanzania among the first seven African countries to start making the best of the single African market. Tanzania plans to export no less than 10 different products under the AfCFTA deal starting with coffee and marble. The AfCFTA Secretary General is confident that the deal will result in higher paying jobs and also sees the deal favouring women who are expected to get the larger portion of wage gains. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is at the centre of discussion again as African Heads of State and Government meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for two…

Elon Musk applied for licensing to provide Tanzania with satellite Internet services; that was last year. This year, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), has said, Musk’s Starlink, the company that provides the satellite internet services, needs only to complete the required procedure to set up shop in the country. This response by Tanzania to Elon Musk’s application has stirred up controversy on Twitter with executives from both sides raising allegations and counter-allegations. On Elon Musk’s side, you have allegations of foul play by existing telecom giants in Tanzania lobbying to keep his Starlink from entering the market. Also Read:…

EAC Partner States need to fast-track implementation regulations on the liberalisation of air transport An extra 155,000 jobs and US$1.3 billion in annual GDP would be created if 12 countries opened their skies. Africa has formed the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) to spearhead a single unified air transport market to advance the liberalization of civil aviation in Africa. In the spirit of creating a single market and increased integration of Africa’s 54 nations, stakeholders want airlines operating within the continent to lower fares. Recent research by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed that ‘if just 12 key Africa…

For over a decade, the East Africa single tourist visa programme has been discussed and proposed by EAC governments. Rwanda maintains that the East Africa single tourist visa will help market the entire region as a single tourist destination. The response from Tanzania is promising compared to the non-committal stance in previous engagements. Buy a visa to Rwanda and get to visit all of Tanzania’s and Kenya’s tourist attractions. In fact, with that single visa you can tour all the 7 countries of East Africa. This is what the East Africa single tourist visa programme proposes. Tanzania is home to…

The Horn of Africa region – Eritirea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti and Somali – has faced persistent food shortages due to a mix of climatic conditions and conflict in some parts of the region. Over 22 million people face a dire lack of food, a decade after setting the global sustainable development goals (SDGs). Four consecutive seasons of failed rains in the region and in Northern Kenya has threatened to further exacerbate the food situation in the Horn. The single known reason why rains are failing in what is supposed to be the world’s most rain rich region is climate change,…

Tanzania is planning to increase its production of coal by more than three million tonnes annually as it rumps up its drive towards clean energy. The country made its plans public at the start of the year through the Tanzania Mining Commission (TMC) which announced that the country has already increased it coal output from 1.5 million tonnes in the 2020/21 period to 1.56 million tonnes by the second half of this financial year 2022/23. TMC Executive Secretary, Engineer Yahya Samamba, said Tanzania earned 211 million US dollars from the 2020/21 production of 1.5 million tones. He also made it…

World trade is increasingly relying on new technologies to meet demand and Asia is likely to take centre stage in the future of global trade. Analysts predict Southeast Asia will be the world’s busiest trade area by trade volume. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that billions of dollars are already been invested in warehouses and distribution centers across with ports investing in automated vehicles and cranes to increase efficiency and cut costs in the long term. Trade in the modern world is global. Flow of goods, services, capital, people and data connects us all. Value chains of even…

At the close of 2022, between September to December, food prices soared around the world and with no signs of this abating in 2023, countries in Africa will have to move with speed to mitigate a looming food crisis.  Food inflation is particularly pronounced and severe in low-income and middle-income countries. According to most recent sector reports, up to 94.1% of low-income countries around the world suffer food inflation. With increasing food prices, the cost of living is increasing, and it is no better in lower-middle-income countries of which 92.9% are contending with food inflation. Also Read: Starvation, death threaten…

Tanzanite is a precious stone said to be a thousand times rare than the rarest diamond. True to that claim, the tanzanite gemstone is mined in only one location in the world; a small area in Simanjiro District in Tanzania. Given the scarcity of tanzanite you would expect that the single mining country, Tanzania would be stock rich, or at least earn the lion’s share of what the gem is valued. This is not the case. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Tanzanite trade globally earns USD 500 million a year, but Tanzania’s export revenues are a paltry…

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) boasts of some of Africa’s largest economies, but like many economies of the world, the 15 member states of ECOWAS are facing both endemic and global challenges that could undermine the region’s economic growth in in 2023. While two years ago in 2020, before the global pandemic struck, a majority of ECOWAS countries were enjoying the commodity boom with the region’s three of its largest economies – Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire – accounting for one-fourth of Africa’s GDP. Unfortunately, short of a change in the global economic projection, it will be…