The central bank of Tanzania (BoT) published its January 2021 monthly economic review report, breaking down several performance aspects of various sectors including exports, imports, as well as the national debt.

Inflation

On this section of the economy, the central bank report showed the year-on-year headline inflation remained moderate at 3.2 per cent in December 2020, compared to 3 per cent in the earlier month.

The report argued that the changes occurred due to price-driven onto food and non-food items. On the overall basis, the inflation rate was within the regional benchmarks as well as below the country medium-term target of 5.0 per cent.

“On month-to-month headline inflation increased to 0.8 per cent in December 2020 compared to 0.3 per cent in the previous month and 0.6 per cent recorded in the corresponding period in 2019” the report noted.

However, the bank report highlighted that inflation is projected to remain …

Tanzania central bank last week produced a monthly economic review for December 2020, which depicted rather a range of issues, for instance on revenue performance being broadly in line with the 2020/2021 target.

Inflation

According to the recent report, the annual headline inflation slightly eased to 3.0 per cent in November 2020 from 3.1 per cent in the preceding month. The central bank argues that this was largely attributed to the slowdown in food inflation, stable exchange rate and moderate oil prices in the world market.

Hence, the inflation rate remains within the regional benchmarks and is below the country medium-term target of 5 per cent.

“On a month-to-month basis, headline inflation increased to 0.3 per cent in November 2020 compared to a rate of negative 0.1 per cent in the previous month and 0.5 per cent recorded in the corresponding period in 2019. Inflation is projected to remain in …

Africa’s second-biggest economy, South Africa—will face four days straight of power cuts (from 1200 noon) after the state-owned utility Eskom Holdings reported a malfunction at one of their latest established plants, according to Bloomberg News.

According to different sources in South Africa, the dependable power provider has confirmed a stage 2 power cut which is necessary, to kickstart from Thursday through Sunday.

The overnight calamity has rather brought back South Africa’s toil from the earlier stage 2 shedding on January 06 2021. By then, Eskom had 6672MW on planned maintenance and another 12073MW of capacity unavailable due to unforeseen maintenance.

In 2020, South Africa suffered various power cuts amid their struggle to resuscitate the economy which slipped into a second recession.

This scenario emerges a week after the utility suspended load shedding due to power demand decline. By 8 January the power provider had 6060MW on planned maintenance, while 13206 …

The Kilimanjaro mountain scape, Serengeti fascinating landscape, the Ngorongoro conservation magical experience and the spice island exuberant moments in Zanzibar are just a few joyous tourist experiences, one can acquire in real-time when visiting Tanzania.

Nevertheless, this magnificent reality is a product of hard labour and constant update of policies, laws and modus operandi of the tourism industry in Tanzania.

However, over the past couple of years, the competition has spiced up pretty hard and other players are coming into the fold, naming two: Rwanda with its stunning hills scenery—investing millions of dollars to brand their industry (Visit Rwanda) and Uganda’s game viewing.

To say the least, Tanzania has competitors across the East African Community, and it is great—in the name of developing healthy economic pillars, which are driven by sustainable mechanisms to preserve natural resources and unify our regional economies.

The Tanzanian tourism sector contributes nearly 17.5 per cent …

The Tanzanian central bank (Bank of Tanzania – BoT) published a detailed economic bulletin for the quarter ending September 2020, which showed Zanzibar’s economy taking a nosedive contracting by 2 per cent compared to a growth rate of 5.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter in 2019.

Zanzibar—the semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, is taking various measures to enhance economic and trade liberalization that can pave a smooth way for the private sector to get engaged in the local, regional and international arena.…

The year 2020 had a lot of events across the development aisle, and Tanzania’s economic upgrade from low to lower-middle-income status by the World Bank (WB), is worth noting as one of the success stories.

There have been a number of forecasts on the economy of Africa and Tanzania at large, with a variety of predictions which point at different directions.

On June 11 2020, the Tanzanian government confidently, via the Ministry of Finance and Planning stated that the nation’s economy is expected to grow at a rate of 5.4 per cent in 2020 compared to earlier estimates of 6.9 per cent.…

It is not every day that young men and young women with burning and out-of-the-ordinary business ideas get to meet an angel investor in an elevator or meet a venture capitalist by fluke.

A local TV show based in Tanzania made that scenario a reality, by bending the ropes of bureaucracy and lengthy proposal-writing to make big dreamers, change-makers and transformative business owners maximize their reach.…

It is with great joy and pride to say Africa is mounting the digitalization hill and none of the 54 countries seems to tire of the climb. From the emergence of mobile money in East Africa to the use of drone technology in monitoring farmland activities in Ghana, all seem as ground-breaking as the other digital operations executed in Africa.

Through the years East Africa has seen a surge in fintech exceeding expectations; services such as M-Pawa in Tanzania, M-Shwari and M-Pesa in Kenya (offered by  Vodacom Tanzania and Safaricom Kenya respectively) has not only digitalized financing en masse for the unbanked but enabled digitalization in East Africa to soar to new heights.…

Tanzanians love African Movies, they adore Tanzanians films, so as everyone else whether it is shown on cable or Netflix and more importantly Tanzania film industry has been taking rather unique stages of growth.

Tanzania has seen a steady increase in the production, dissemination and recognition of its very own performers across the world stage.

Filmmakers with a peculiar taste such as Vincet Kigosi, Amil Shivji, and Nicholas Marwa have been demonstrating their untamed potential to the world with their stellar movies captivating thousands.

However, the industry is yet to scratch the surface, and more importantly, the industry has elevated at the right time when international industry stakeholders such as NetFlix are hungry for raw, creative and extraordinary content, and Tanzania is rich in all of those.

On Tuesday 29th December, another milestone has been made in the Tanzania film industry, Nyara a locally financed (more than $86240) film was …

This is a crucial milestone in Africa over the past decade. Just in East Africa digital financial services are ascending in the periphery areas and being adopted rather well.  

In Tanzania, postal services could go obsolete as the digital divide keeps closing in, with internet penetration ramping up 46 per cent in 2019 from 43 in 2018 and telecom subscriptions according to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority piling up to nearly 50 million people. 

These few case studies do not only paint what is going on in Africa but showcase …