Author: Giza Mdoe

For over two months now, companies in Tanzania are holding back contractor payments blaming it on the global coronavirus crisis. Chinese companies are particularly in the spotlight with contractors complaining of delayed payments for goods delivered and services done. In an exclusive with this paper, an aggregate mine operator (name withheld) said payments due to the company from Chinese companies are still pending two months down the road. This is the exact scenario that the government tried to evade when it throughout the Central Bank, Bank of Tanzania, it released a stimulus package to cushion the economy to ensure business…

The higher your salary, the higher your taxes, that is why it is called P.A.Y.E that is Pay-As-You-Earn. You earn more, you pay more, its that simple, or is it. Apparently it is not that simple. Companies are giving the top management and expatriates leeway to weasel out of the earning tax. You see, PAYE is a function of your earning that is, it is tax deducted from your monthly salary. The way it works is that you earn a gross amount from which taxes are deducted and your pension contribution is also deducted as well. What remains after these…

The East African Community (EAC) has put off what would have been the bloc’s first attempt to develop a regional response to the coronavirus pandemic. This emergency meeting falls under the jurisdiction of the regional charter that allows for convening of what is referred to as an ‘extraordinary’ meeting. It is extraordinary because it occurs outside the scheduled ‘Ordinary’ meetings. Well, speaking of putting off meetings, even the scheduled Ordinary meeting that was due to be held at the end of February was also postponed. Back to the coronavirus response extraordinary meeting, the sitting East African Community (EAC) Chairman, Rwanda’s…

The price for crude oil is down 60 percent since the year started and it is only tumbling further, global oil news reports. On the one hand, analysts blame the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and on the other the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia is said to have contributed to the sharp drop. Even the movers and shakers are feeling the pinch, oil in the US plummeted 34%, crude oil falling by 26%, and brent oil falling 24%. Associated Press reports that prices this week dropped to an 18 year all time low of under USD20 a barrel for…

The Tanzanian shilling has had an impressive first quarter stifling off the effects of coronavirus threat even amidst travel restrictions and slowed trade. Up to the close of the quarter, the central bank of Tanzania, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) said the Tanzanian shilling is strong and has ‘remained resilient against the dollar.’ This means trade, particularly import and export was stable as the value of the shilling muscled up against the dollar. As matters would have it, by the end of February, the Tanzanian shilling was rather impressive trading at an average rate of Sh2,300.9 for every dollar, a…

As the number of new coronavirus infections reaches 53, the government of Tanzania has ordered schools to stay closed indefinitely, evidence of the uncertainty that haunts these murky coronavirus times. It is the crowded commercial port city of Dar es Salaam that is most affected, in fact all the  53 new Covid-19 reported cases are in the city of 6 million plus people. There are 4 new cases since the last new infection was reported on Monday making it 4 new cases in just 3 days, that is a rate of almost one new infection per day this week. The…

At a time when physical contact is discouraged due to spread of coronavirus, Tanzania’s little town of Kilimanjaro, has set up Automated Teller Machines (ATM) for the sale of milk. There is little human contact involved apart from the exchange of money making the machines a vital game changer in curbing spread of the virus. The move has set a global precedence in the use of digital telecommunication for commercial purposes.  What stands out is the fact that the technology has not been set up in the bustling urban town of Dar es Salaam but rather on the outskirts in…

Tanzania has eventually allowed teenage mothers to return to school after the World Bank approved a USD500 million loan as support for the improvement of Tanzania’s education system. Tanzania had until now denied pregnant girls to return to school after delivery and to push it to change its mind, for over the last two years, the World Bank withheld the requested loan in a bid to push Tanzania to ease the law. Tanzania’s President John Magufuli is known to hold a hard stance against pregnant teenagers returning to school after delivery. As a result, activists in the country and abroad…

Tanzania has released reprinted versions of several denominations of the country’s banknotes. The new banknotes are meant to be more secure against duplication and forgery. The new security features include the removal of the classic thin stripe in the old banknote, called the motion thread and replacing it with a rolling star. The former security feature (the motion thread) used a motion image that had special colour effects when the note is moved side to side. The new feature now, the rolling star, also has a movement and color change trait, but makes wavy motions when the note is tilted.…

The economic impact of fake and substandard oil on the global economy is valued in the billions of dollars. The business is tempting, it has cheap overhead and high profits and so the black market for fake goods is growing . The counterfeits black market affects all types of good, from food products to toys, to cosmetics to jet fuels, you name it, it has a counterfeit. In Kenya, millions of litres of crude oil has been barred from entering the country via an oil tanker on April Fools. News of the cargo ship, No. K07/2020 has just been released to local media saying…