Author: Padili Mikomangwa

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 …

Zanzibar’s economic developments have grabbed Bank of Tanzania (BoT)’s attention in its monthly economic review.

According to the study, inflation remained fairly balanced, revenue collection has been gaining substantial raise, while the external sector performance dwindled.

Zanzibar which is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, with fertile historical and economic relations with Tanzania, has been taking crucial steps in its economic endeavors, including agriculture and tourism.

According to the 2018 National Budget brief of Zanzibar, prepared by Office of the Chief Government Statistics (OCGS) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Zanzibar has maintained impressive economic growth; government revenues and expenditures are expanding rapidly. In the financial year of 2017/18, the approved budget totals $ 483 million which is a 29 per cent increase in total expenditures in nominal terms (or 26 per cent in real terms).

READ: Zanzibar plans airports face-lift to meet global standards

Inflation and budgetary operations

Per the …

Tanzania’s leading technology and communication company, Vodacom Tanzania, has partnered with the  government, to fortify financial payment systems to 127 local governments offices.

The partnership was witnessed on November 3rd by the Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Government (TAMISEMI) and Vodacom Tanzania Plc, with a clear intention of strengthening payments processes to benefit over 14 million Vodacom customers, when making their duly payments at councils and municipalities across the country.

Vodacom Tanzania, which is listed at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), has taken a bold move within telecom business parameters, particularly with the present fintech take up and normalization in Tanzania, but also—Vodacom numbers catapulted their chances for the deal, as they are now—having 32.4 per cent of market share and 38.6 per cent of mobile money share, while their service revenue as indicated in its preliminary report (2019) grew to over $442 million, which is a …

Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture has begun cementing its foothold on horticulture activities across Tanzania.

The ministry has just concluded a meeting with horticultural farmers and products exporters, to address taxing and policy drawbacks related to the sub-sector.

The meeting catapulted rather vital issues for the development of the sector, particularly converging Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) players, but also, gave a path to the possibility of ushering a three-year plan that will be associated with a special managing body.

According to the ministry, the meeting attracted vital players from crucial ministries, including—finance and planning, industry and trade, ports authority and farmers.

Speaking at the meeting, the Deputy Ministry of Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, stressed that the meeting root agenda was to highlight various challenges affecting the sub-sector and respective measures to address them.

Per Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics, second-quarter report—the agricultural sector growth rate stood at …

The cashew nut season in Tanzania has recently commenced and according to a recent report by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), almost 40 per cent of the nation’s harvested cashew nuts have been exported, over the period of the 2018/2019 season, which means about 90,000 tonnes have been exported.

Per the BoT report, Tanzania cashew stock for the 2018/2019 season is over 225,000 tones, whereas the amount of the respective income garnered has not yet been revealed.

The Ministry of Agriculture has confidence that the sales of cashew nut to go on quite well in this season, taking the new measures put in place to fortify accurate and effective bids and sales over space and time.

This includes the newly ushered digital auction system, that will be executed per the open digital auction platform operational standards, giving an ample room to all interested buyers to bid their stake into the …

The Tanzanian airspace will soon get another a third Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft to enhance its air travel activities.

This makes a total of 12 aircrafts in its the carrier’s fleet an expansion to increase domestic flights and service more international destinations including Mumbai, India, Burundi, and Seychelles.

According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), almost 4 billion people used air transport in 2017 to move over various destinations,  to explore different places, conduct business activities and take over various opportunities.

The latter proves that geographical orientations are no longer barriers to movement over space and time in the 21 century, so as to Tanzania, thus begging the question that: could air space be the next breakout for Tanzania?.

Tanzania is making rather fairly calculated moves to engrave its mark in the aviation industry, and trading in the path of competitive African airlines major players including Kenya’s KQ and Ethiopian …