Author: Giza Mdoe

As the rest of the country shuts down all entry ports, heavily reliant on tourism, the spice Isles of Zanzibar are allowing charter flights to land but with strict conditions.

Isles authorities have permitted charter flights bringing tourists to the island to land but on condition that all persons on board enter a 14 days quarantine stay, at their own expense.

This surprising turn of events happens in the backdrop of ongoing global threat of the spread of coronavirus. Even leading sports leagues have been cancelled and regional high profile meetings are been held on conference calls.

Across Africa, the tourism industry has come to an almost complete shutdown. It is time immemorial since a disease stopped people from touring and going for holidays, at least not since the deadly World War I and II power viruses.

With most all African countries eventually succumbing to the threat and finally closing …

There are now more than 100,000 mini-grid stations across Africa, these little power generation stations are serving to bridge Africa’s rural power gap and Tanzania is no exception.

While the country leads Africa in rural electrification efforts, there is still huge gap between demand and supply and the solution to cover it lays in mini-grids, small power stations that generate power at localized remote points.

To date, Tanzania has well over 100 mini-grids that provide electrical power to over 250,000 people in remote corners of the country. These mini-grids provide close to 200 MW using biomass, fossil fuel and solar systems as well as hybrids of these energy sources.

Tanzania’s national policies also support adoption of renewable energy technologies. Off-grid electrification using renewable energy technologies can offer a power solution to rural and remote areas. These efforts are inline with the global Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG number 7 calls for …

More than ever before, Tanzania and the rest of Africa need to employ rain harvesting technology. Global climate changing is drastically affecting weather patterns, rains are heavier or missing completely, droughts in otherwise tropical areas, cyclones and tornadoes ravaging through coastlines. Weather is now less predictable than ever before.

For both economic and social reasons, Tanzania needs to make the best of the rains when they come, Tanzania needs to harvest rain water.

While at national or even city levels, there are some sophisticated equations involved in rain harvesting, like building reservoirs and purification sites, but all in all, the science of rain harvesting technology is not all that complicated at all. It’s a simple three step investment, collect, store and purify.

Since economies rely on water for production and households depend on clean and safe water for daily survivor, harvesting rain water should not even be optional, it should …

When it comes to extractive industries, Tanzania is one of Africa’s richest countries. From minerals to marine resources, Tanzania has it all. It is the World’s only source of Tanzanite, a blue gem said to be 1000 times rarer than diamond. It is home to the highest mountain on the continent and Lake Tanganyika, the World’s deepest lake.

How to manage the extractive industries is an insurmountable task that has seen many countries plunge into endless civil wars. At the center of this strife is a matter of much deliberation but one word can describe the complex mechanisms that are required to efficiently manage the extractive industries, transparency.

Transparency in this case is a very touchy subject after all, who wants to let the world know the details of the 100 years renewable contract that they have signed with a multi-national corporation?

However, that is exactly what transparency demands, stifle …

Coffee production in South America is on a sharp increase and the resulting market flood is severely hurting East African coffee growers.

As supply increases, the market price is steadily falling. For trading blocs like the East African Community (EAC) where coffee is traditionally among the leading export commodities, the lower market prices spell a gloomy period up ahead.

In fact, for most of the East African countries, coffee accounts for 76 percent of the value of all agricultural exports put together. So losing the coffee market is a severe blow to economic development in East Africa and across the continent too.

Sector pundits say South America is using improved hybrids that are growing fast, producing better yields and they also have better after harvest storage and transportation facilities which are important to maintain the quality of the grain.

For example, statistics show that Brazil is now the world’s leading …

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has today launched the SADC industrialization week ahead of the upcoming Summit of SADC Heads of state.

This is the fourth SADC industrialization week and it is running under the theme; A Conducive Environment for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, Increased Intra-regional Trade and Job Creation.

The event isbeing held from the 5^th – 9^that the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es salaam. It highlights ongoing regional efforts to realize the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063.

Speaking at the launch, President Magufuli, who took office in 2015 on the industrialization ticket said Tanzania will continue to push the industrialization agenda as the key to national development especially through agricultural value chains which in turn opens up new employment opportunities for youth in the country.

Known as SADC Industrialization Week (SIW), the event has attracted over 3000 compnaies for the …

The Phantom 9 is the newest edition in the TECNO Phantom series following release of the Phantom 8 in 2017. In collaboration with TIGO, this package of advanced smartphone technology comes with 98 GBs for its customers.

According to TECNO, Communication Manager, Eric Mkomoye the Phantom 9 is the leader in smartphone camera technologies and will undeniably beat competition “In this new digital age, the traditional camera is getting a lot of competition from the smartphone camera technologies and the Phantom 9 has all the features that meet the needs of our customers who love capturing events with their phone cameras,” he said.

He went on to point out that the Phantom 9 camera redefines smartphone camera tech, with its three-pack camera package. The Phantom 9 sports the first of a kind set of cameras that have Artificial Intelligence sensors dubbed the AI triple (16MP+8MP+2MP).
With, a high resolution …

Demand for affordable and reliable energy is on the rise in Tanzania owing to the fast paced economic growth of the country.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates the demand for energy is growing by 10 per cent every year which the bank says ‘reflects the country’s high economic growth.’

To meet this demand, PanAfrican Energy Tanzania (PAET), the first fully Tanzanian owned company has entered into a long-term Gas Sales Agreement (“GSA”) with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (“TPDC”).

The agreement provides for the supply of up to 20 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) of natural gas to the TPDC operated National Natural Gas Infrastructure (“NNGI”) in Songo Songo Island, from where the gas will be processed and transported to Dar es Salaam, primarily for power generation.

This new GSA comes only months after last year’s short-term sales agreement that was also inked with TPDC and TANESCO …

While considerably new, Islamic Banking and Finance has now taken firm roots in Russia and other Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) countries are following suit.

The total volume of Islamic Banking and Finance has now exceeded $2.6 trillion globally. This amount represents transactions, assets and investments by over 2,500 Islamic banking and financial institutions around the global.

In the modern era, Islamic banking and finance can be traced back to the 1960s from Egypt and Malaysia and its dramatic spread over the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Interestingly, while Islamic banking and finance was slow to take foot in Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) countries, its unprecedented growth over the last few years indicates that CIS countries are the emerging Islamic banking and finance market for the future.

Some well known CIS countries include Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

“The delay for Islamic finance initiative in CIS countries …

The Tanzanian government has been losing about Tshs.4 billion ($1.7 million) per month in uncollected taxes on locally produced cigarettes and alcoholic beverages before Electronic Tax Stamps (ETS) started being used in January 2019.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General,  Charles  Kichere told  reporters on April 16^th that in March 2019, TRA collected Tshs.42.8 billion ($18.6 million) on the on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages which is an addition of Tshs.3.5 billion ($1.5 million) compared to Tshs.39.3 billion ($17 million) collected the same month last year.

The Commissioner General said the lost revenue is estimated to be higher than that because some producers are yet to enter ETS due to some reasons and the real amount of money that was being lost will be known once all manufacturers use the new tax system.

He said all local manufacturers as well as importers of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks have until …