Author: Giza Mdoe

While its Standard Gauge Railway project is commencing at the speed of light to give Tanzania its first electric powered train, the country is also making efforts to revive its once closed internal railway line for locomotives. Last year, Tanzanians joy rode the reopened passenger and cargo train from the commercial port city of Dar es Salaam to Moshi, home of Africa’s highest mountain, the Kilimanjaro. New locomotives were bought and engines imported, the train quickly became a national hit and immediately eased the pressure that was on road transport. Government officials led the excited public in trying out the…

Ethiopia wants to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the historically technocrat country now wants to open its doors and become a market economy. This means privatizing its industries, a move that the country was previously reluctant to take. However, over the last eight years, Ethiopia has been making major economic reforms and the world has begun to notice. Under the new liberalization policy, Ethiopia will now privatize some key sectors like its telecom industry and its national pride, the airlines led by Air Ethiopia as well as its banking and logistics sectors. The world has taken notice and to…

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi will later this month take over the Chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The 40th Heads of State summit will be held virtually as Mozambique takes helm of the regional organization to speak on peace, security and regional co-operation. Up to this year, the Chairman of the 16-member regional bloc was under the leadership of Tanzania’s fifth President, Dr. John Magufuli. President Magufuli, the seating chairperson, assumed the leadership of the trade bloc last year in August. Arguably, President Magufuli had to deal with one of the worst crisis that the SADC trade bloc…

After much back and forth that caused enormous delay, the East African Community (EAC) has passed a 97.6m US dollars budget for the next financial year. Of the total amount, 55.6m US dollars will come from EAC partner states, while development partners will contribute 41.9m US dollars. The budget reflects the region’s top priority areas which can be shortlisted to about seven areas. During the next financial year, the community will focus on Consolidation of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) to cover all imports and intra-EAC traded goods, including agricultural and other widely consumed products. It will also cover…

Mauritius is the latest example. Just this Saturday, a grounded oil tanker, MV Wakashio, started spewing tonnes of oil into the Indian Ocean and as the norm on the continent, the country is ill prepared to respond. Africa needs to do a much better job in disaster preparedness. The continent cannot and must not continue to operate on status quo basis, as though no emergency is bound to occur at some point. The natives of Mauritius are left to device makeshift emergency responses in this case using ‘stuffed fabric sacks with sugar cane leaves to create makeshift oil spill barriers…

A man is dying of thirst yet he is surrounded by fresh water. That is the irony of the African farmer. The African farmer is surrounded by fertile land and two rainfall seasons yet he is poor and has very little yield. By all accounts Africa should be feeding the world. Most of the continent is miles and miles of fertile land. Since most of Africa is on the equator or just a few degrees above, it experiences tropical weather that is characterized by two high rainfall peaks. So why does Africa not produce enough food to feed itself and…

The Mastercard Foundation’ Komeza program is gaining momentum and Rwanda, the fastest growing economy in East Africa, is not about to be left behind. Equity Bank of Rwanda as announced that it will be partnering with Rwanda’s Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP) under the Komeza program to stimulate recovery from the negative effects of Covid-19. Komeza is the brainchild of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP) which has won support of Mastercard’s ongoing USD2.5 million MasterCard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program. The Mastercard program is designed to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) specifically in the Tourism and Hospitality sector. (https://spoonerberries.com) Under…

Tanzania is no novice to sisal production, if anything, it is one of the world’s oldest sisal producing countries. Dating back to the late 19th century when the region was then known as the German East Africa Company, sisal was produced by the colonialists, at which time it was the German administration and later the British. Reports state that sisal production was the colony’s largest export so much that at the time of independence in 1961, Tanzania was the largest exporter of Sisal in the world. Now, almost 6 decades down the road, Tanzania is working on regaining the status. For…

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has won a USD 1.3 million (3bn/-) case against Vodacom Tanzania dating back almost two decades ago. Tanzania’s Court of Appeal delivered a ruling last week in which it rejected Vodacom’s appeal of TRA’s tax audit dating back to a three year period between 2001-2004. Local media reported at the start of the week that, “…TRA, the respondent, conducted tax audit in respect of the appellant’s business affairs for the period covering the year 2001 to 2004.” The findings of this audit were that Vodacom Tanzania was withholding tax and penalties related to services and…

While most other East African countries are expected to fall into a recession for the remainder of the year, Tanzania’s economy is actually expected to grow. The unexpected projection was given recently by the African Development Bank (AfDB) which stated that Tanzania’s economy may expand by as much as 5.2 percent this year. This report contradicts that of the World Bank which recently forecast that the country’s economy would suffer a slowdown and slump down to 2.5 percent from last year’s high of 6.4 percent. “Despite the projected slowdown, real GDP growth in Tanzania will benefit from increased prices of…