The oil and gas industry in Africa is yet another profitable sector that can transform the energy and revenue generation of gas-endowed nations and contribute greatly to their economic development. 

According to the global network firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), by the end of 2017, Africa had nearly 487.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves, comprising 7.1 per cent of global proven reserves. …

The central bank of Tanzania (BoT) published its quarterly economic bulletin on Monday 8 February 2021 for the quarter ending December 2020, and it portrays rather satisfactory performance despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) shocks affecting the global economy.

The report pointed that, in the third quarter, the growth was at 4.5 per cent, leading to the average growth rate of 4.7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2020, compared to 7.3 per cent in the corresponding period in 2019 and 6.9 per cent in 2018.

According to the report, the satisfactory growth was rather contributed by various sectors particularly, construction, agriculture, transport and mining and quarrying.

The government of Tanzania did provide strategic measures to cushion the economy from the virus shocks, this included a deliberate decision of ruling out mandatory lockdowns.

Gross Domestic Product

The performance of the economy was driven by rather four sectors, construction, agriculture, transport, …

Tanzania, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economy has taken a deliberate step to increase its 2021/22 financial year budget by 4 per cent to accelerate economic growth.

According to the Tanzanian Legal and Constitutional Affairs minister, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, standing on behalf of the Finance and Planning Minister in Parliament yesterday, cited the increase to be attributed by several issues including an amplified requirement by the consolidate fund(The Citizen)

“This includes [money required for] repayment of government debt; money required to cater for promotions of public servants and new jobs [in the public service],” he said.

According to information from The Citizen, this increment comes as the East African nation prep for its third five-year development blueprint.

Tanzania—which was categorized by the World Bank, as a low middle-income country on July 2020, will raise its budget from around $14.6 billion allocated in 2020/2021 financial year to around $15.5 billion, which is …

The East African region is primarily agricultural-based with the sector contributing an average of two-thirds of GDP and providing jobs to the majority of citizens. It is a key tax earner for governments and serves as a solid base under which the region’s industries are based. Agribusiness contributes about 25 per cent of Africa’s GDP and a staggering 70 percent of its employment.

Global food demand is expected to increase by somewhere between 59 percent and 98 percent by 2050 as the world population reaches an estimated 9.7 billion.

Most of the region’s countries have an ideal climatic condition for agriculture and mainly rely on rain-fed agriculture. Kenya, the most developed economy in the region which interestingly has a diversified economy more than just agriculture is least endowed in rain-fed agriculture compared to Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.…

Absa suffered a major data leak in South Africa and even though the breach did not occur at the bank itself, the data leak still raises security questions concern the safety of client’s money.

Absa is new in Tanzania, the newest big player in the banking industry and has invested a great deal in creating a positive image. However, earlier this month, that image was gravely tainted after an Absa employee allegedly leaked some of the bank’s customer data.

The incident occurred in the bank’s South African main branch where it is reported that the said employee provided customer information to unknown third party interests. The leaked customer info included client ID numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers and even mobile phone numbers.

The information that was leaked includes names and surnames, identity numbers and physical addresses, the bank admits.

Further still it also admitted other leaked data includes …

Only a fort night after the collapse of Beit-al-Ajaib or the House of Wonders in Stone Town, Zanzibar, the island’s tourism earnings are reported to be down 38 percent compared to last year.

The report comes from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) which states that despite the tourism sector racking in a surplus of $62.7 million, however this is still 37.7 percent lower than what it was able to amass during the same period in 2019.

Zanzibar’s economy greatly relies on tourism and historical sites like the House of Wonders are a great attraction for tourists. Now with the building having collapsed during restoration efforts, the island is suffering the effects.

Granted the single event is not the cause for the dropped revenue, which the BoT blames on Covid-19, the loss of such an important site has an impact in the sector.

In its monthly economic review for December, BoT …

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 …

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 …

As of October last year, Tanzania, East Africa’s Largest producer of cement, was facing so much shortage that prices almost doubled.

A 50kg bag of cement that would, on normal market weather conditions go for about USD 6 the price shot up 30 per cent to a little over USD 8, show the National Bureau of Statistics data for October 2020.

It was a paradox, and the hardliner government wouldn’t have it, newly re-appointed into power, Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa was swift to act.  He ordered a nationwide inspection of all known cement factories, warehouses, distribution points and even retail shops.…

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.…