Author: Padili Mikomangwa

Tanzanian President John Magufuli, has received $455.8 million (Tsh1.05 Trillion) as the governments dividend and revenue share from 79 entities that the government holds stake in.

According to the president, Tanzania’s government has invested over $25 billion in 266 entities in Tanzania.

The divided and revenue share handing was executed in the capital city-Dodoma witnessed by various several-top government officials and private sector influential actors including, the Ministry of Finance and Planning and financial institutions chiefs.

The government’s dividend and revenue shares offered which rose from over $293 million in the 2016/2017 financial year, $365.5 million in  2017/2018 to over $455.8 million in the  2018/2019 financial year and sadly, the contribution has been dominated by a fraction of entities, as 187 out of 266 entities supposed to hand their contributions did not execute their fair contribution, due to operating under loss.

The top three contributors were Tanzania Ports Authority with …

Earlier this week, the African Development Bank signed an unfunded $250-million Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) facility with ABSA – a pan-Africa financial institution with a solid presence in 12 African countries.

According to AfDB’s statement, the 3 year RPA facility was signed on November 12, on the sidelines of the Africa Investment Form through its trade finance operations.

Under this 3-year RPA facility, the Bank and ABSA will share the default risk on a portfolio of eligible trade transactions originated by African Issuing Banks (IBs) and confirmed by ABSA.

ABSA Group Limited is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups with solid human capital on the ground reaching around 42 000 employees.

Also, ABSA has majority stakes in banks in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Seychelles , South Africa (Absa Bank), Tanzania (Barclays Bank in Tanzania and National Bank of …

Lusaka as one of the fastest developing cities in southern Africa has acquired a rather vital sanitation fund to bring to life the $243 million Lusaka Sanitation Program (LSP), jointly funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Investment Bank, German Development Bank and the World Bank.

Read:Lusaka emerald auction generates US$18.6 million revenue

AfDB places Zambia’s economy growth (Real GDP) at an estimated at 4.0 per cent in 2018, compared to 4.1 per cent in 2017, whereas—the bank argues that, construction has also attributed to the growth, citing public infrastructure projects which increased at 10 per cent in 2018.

However, United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) poor sanitation results in a 1.3 per cent loss to Zambia’s national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually, which also contributed to Zambia’s high rate of child stunting (40 per cent), hence—research argues that, addressing the latter downplays the risk of stunting.…

The International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) has been granted $4.5 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a 3-year research and capacity building program on tax in relation to digital financial services, and their use, as well as digital ID infrastructure, in enabling low-income countries to more efficiently and equitably raise tax revenue, ICTD press release reads.

ICTD is a research network that aims at improving the quality of tax policy and administration in sub-Saharan Africa. It works with African partners to collaboratively generate policy-relevant research and build African research capacity in the area of taxation.

The funding came amidst an important convergence of over 450 tax officials, experts, and policymakers who are in Uganda-Kampala, participating in the Fourth International Conference on ICT and Accessibility (ICTA), themed: Innovation—digitalization and harnessing Technology to Improve Tax Systems.

More importantly, Increasing domestic resource mobilization is a …

The Tanzanian informal sector is one of the leading employers’ spheres and a rather pool for mushrooming local or indigenous knowledge and creativity, which eventually remains dormant, and not analyzed keenly.

Available data of the past shows how the informal sector bears merit to the convectional economy if utilized effectively. The International Labor Organization data points out that, non-agriculture jobs in the informal economy represent 66 per cent of all employment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Further, about 74 per cent of women are within informal employment boundaries, compared to 61 of the males. Data published by Statista, show that agriculture sector—which has been attracting a multitude of the Tanzanian un-employed population, has been the leading employment sector since 2008, where it scored 73 per cent, today it stands at 66.35 per cent.

In August this year, Tanzanian’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Ministry of Finance and Planning, did a …

The world is much more digitally interconnected, compared to the past three decades, and Tanzania has been busy to get its fair share of interconnectedness.

In 2013, there were about 23 million telecom subscribers in Tanzania, surprisingly at the moment, the number is almost close to double, as Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), telecoms statistics show, over 43 million subscribers, with an 81 per cent penetration.

It is important to recognize the contribution of the telecoms sector in Tanzania, to the economy and to the promotion of innovative solutions to community problems. Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) quarterly highlights, show that: information and communications sector recorded a 10.3 per cent growth, compared to 9.6 in the first quarter, thus—the growth is attributed to increasing in airtime used by mobile phone owners, and the expansion of Tanzania’s broadcasting and internet use landscape.

On the side of the context, Bank of …

The Tanzanian gaming sector has been taking tremendous shifts over the past five years, witnessing various investors taking a bite into Tanzania’s gaming market with open hands.

According to the ongoing prospects in the gaming industry in Tanzania, it is worth exploring the scenario that: gaming activities might have a substantial contribution to Tanzania’s Revenue Authority (TRA) tax collections.

More importantly, the Tanzanian government is having an all-out strategy to enhance its revenue collection, hence—it managed to score an all-time record of $ 762.4 million tax collection in September 2019.

Per Tanzania’s Ministry of Finance and Planning report, during the financial year 2018/2019, Tanzania garnered over $ 6 billion in tax revenue, whereas—the Gaming Board of Tanzania (GBT), indicates that the sector’s contribution to the government reached over $ 41 million in the fiscal year 2018/2019, compared to $ 33 million in 2017.

The gaming industry has witnessed a …

Zanzibar’s official statistics provider (Office of the Chief Government Statistician – OCGS) has released figures on the performance of the agricultural sector.

The report provided an insight into the country’s performance and impact of different interventions carried out by the Government and other stakeholders to improve the agriculture sector in the country.

According to the National Budget Brief of 2018 organized by OCGS and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), unequivocally, the share of development spending in the national budget of Zanzibar increased from 17 per cent to 46 per cent between 2013/14 and 2017/18. On the other hand, the share of recurrent budget decreased from 83 per cent to 54 per cent for the same period. for the same period.

The report, on the other hand, gave out crucial sets of data which include: quantities and values of fish catches, cash crops, mining and quarry, seaweeds, forest products and …

Exports from Tanzania have slightly increased, according to a recent economic review from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

NBS’ second-quarter report, indicates that the economy has grown to 7.2 percent, anchored by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT), construction and water sectors, hence—still the external sectors records significant deficits, sparked by importation of higher goods imports.

The report showed that the overall balance of payments was a deficit of $37.7 million in the year ending September 2019 compared with a deficit of $276.4 million in the year ending September 2018. Meanwhile the current account deficit widened to over $2,1 billion from over $1.8 billion, owing to higher goods imports, particularly capital and intermediate goods which are used for production.

However, on the other side of the sector, the report argues that: Tanzania’s holds sufficient reserves to sustain its operations for over 6.1 months of projected imports of goods and …

Cryptocurrencies might not be trending anymore in Tanzania, as the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) unequivocally issued a statement on November 12, this year.

The bank noted that trading, marketing and usage of virtual currency is contrary to existing foreign exchange regulations, the BoT press release reads.

The first famous decentralized cryptocurrency bitcoin created in 2009, began taking a rather wide interest in Tanzania, for the past three years. The virtual currency disruption has been noted by the BoT, which led to the central bank’s decision to intervene.

“The Bank of Tanzania has noted a growing trend among members of public engaging in activities related to the usage of virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies) in the country. The Bank is also aware of incidences where these currencies are being marketed and traded with a perception of making them appear as if they were a legal tender in the country. Moreover, there are some …