Browsing: Tanzania

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report on Tanzania’s economic status was one-sided.

Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Phillip Mpango opened up on April 23, 2019 detailing why the government did not give IMF the green light to publish the content.

Responding after the matter was raised in the National Assembly, Dr Mpango said that the go-ahead was not given because opinions given by government experts after reading the first draft were not included in the final report.

“The IMF team was in the country from November 26 to December 7 last year. After preparing the draft I received on March 18 and we gave opinions that should have been accommodated in the final report but that did not happen,” the minister said.

Dr Mpango noted that during his recent visit to Washington DC for the 2019 spring meetings organized by the World Bank and IMF, he held talks on the …

Tobacco growing in Tanzania may get a boost if plans by the government to increase sales are successful.

The Tanzanian government is planning to initiate talks with the member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to seek markets for tobacco in those countries.

Data indicates that in 2017, tobacco brought in more foreign exchange to the country than coffee, cotton, tea, cloves and sisal combined.

However, tobacco production fell considerably over the third quarter of 2018, dropping by a third of the previous quarter’s performance.

The setback was that Tanzania’s tobacco was sold at high prices in other countries because of charging high tax, compared to the same tobacco from Uganda and Kenya.

The country is in talks with Egypt and Algerian ambassadors to Tanzania to prepare bilateral agreements that would enable reduced tax on Tanzania’s tobacco to be sold in those countries in …

The Tanzanian government has pledged continued support to Chinese investments at the 2019 Tanzania-China High-level Investment and Business Environment Dialogue in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam on April 17, 2019.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Investment, Angellah Kairuki, said Chinese investment has had and will continue to play an important role in helping us reach our goal of attaining a middle-income country status by 2025.

She said as the two countries marked 55 years of diplomatic relations this year, Tanzania was committed to continuing working closely with China, particularly through mechanisms within the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that promotes government and private investments. However, it is unavoidable that some misunderstandings may occur in the rapidly growing and wide-ranging economic relations and trade, she told the event.

“Even so, it is my sincere belief that cooperation and common development will continue to represent the …

The Tanzanian government has been losing about Tshs.4 billion ($1.7 million) per month in uncollected taxes on locally produced cigarettes and alcoholic beverages before Electronic Tax Stamps (ETS) started being used in January 2019.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General,  Charles  Kichere told  reporters on April 16^th that in March 2019, TRA collected Tshs.42.8 billion ($18.6 million) on the on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages which is an addition of Tshs.3.5 billion ($1.5 million) compared to Tshs.39.3 billion ($17 million) collected the same month last year.

The Commissioner General said the lost revenue is estimated to be higher than that because some producers are yet to enter ETS due to some reasons and the real amount of money that was being lost will be known once all manufacturers use the new tax system.

He said all local manufacturers as well as importers of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks have until …

A visiting renowned German scholar has cautioned Tanzania not to  sign an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) trade pact with the European Union (EU), saying the deal is rhymed against the country`s aspiration of becoming an industrial economy.

Addressing reporters in the capital, Dar es Salaam on 15^th April, 2019, Helmut Asche who is Professor of Economics, Politics and African studies at the University of Leipzig said as a country set to build industries and export produce, Tanzania should not sign deals that flood its market with imports.

The EPA is an anticipated trade deal between the East African Community (EAC) and the EU which gives EAC products total access to the EU market, with 82.6 per cent of imports from the EU allowed on the EAC market.

Professor Asche warned African countries against signing EPA because the arrangement does not favour their economies. He further said that Tanzania in …

Acacia Mining Plc has registered a 13 per cent fall in gold production for the first quarter of 2019, attributing the decline to lower output at its North Mara and Buzwagi mines.

The company`s Interim CEO, Peter Geleta said in a statement accompanying the quarterly report that gold production stood at 104,889 ounces , with ounces sold for the quarter standing at 104,985 ounces and in line with production.

Production in the first quarter was affected by unanticipated production issues at North Mara, which produced 66,324 ounces of gold for the quarter, cited as a 14 per cent year-on-year decrease.

The lower output was mainly driven by the consequence of a fall of ground in the Gokona underground mine in December, as well as an excavator breakdown in the Nyabirama open pit.

The fall of ground at Gokona prevented access in the quarter to two higher-grade stopes in the east, …

Members of Parliament from eastern African countries are on 15^th April, 2019 expected to launch the Eastern Africa Parliamentary Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (EAPA FSN) – a sub-regional platform aimed at promoting the right to food in eastern Africa through improved legislation.

According to a statement issued on 14^th April, 2019 by the Food and Agriculture (FAO) of the United Nations, the launch is in line with the first annual meeting in Tanzania in 2019.

The platform came after realizing that malnutrition continues to be a major impediment to economic development, whereby it is estimated that 58 million children under the age of five years are too short for their age (stunted) in Africa.

`Childhood malnutrition is costing the African economy about 11 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year, whereas preventing malnutrition delivers $16 in returns on investment for every $1 spent in …

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has said that in February this year the value of export of goods and services increased to Tshs.2.04 trillion ($890 million) from Tshs.1.6 trillion ($698 million) in the preceding month.

According to the BoT`s monthly economic review (MER) for March, an increase is owing to good performance recorded in export of goods particularly gold.

The review said likewise, the value of exports of goods and services increased to Tshs.19.6 trillion ($8.5 billion) in the year ending February 2019 from Tshs.19.3 trillion ($8.4 billion) in the corresponding period in 2018, owing to good performance recorded from non-traditional exports and services receipt.

It added that the value of traditional goods exports increased to 161.9 billion ($70.4 million) in February 2019 from Tshs.88.3 billion ($38.4 million) in January 2019 with cotton and tobacco recording the highest growths.

According to the review, the value of coffee and tea exports …

Tanzania is one of the eight African countries which are to benefit from the African Development Bank`s (AFDB) new grant projects funded by the Agriculture Fast Track Fund (AFT) in support of agribusiness Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

According to a statement issued on 11^th March, 2019, the pan African bank is next week expected to launch 17 new grant projects which are to be implemented in eight African countries – Tanzania (4), Ghana (4), Burkina Faso (2), Malawi (2), Mozambique (2), Ethiopia (1), Nigeria (1) and Senegal (1).

The AFT fund is managed by the agriculture and agro-industry department of the African Development Bank. It supports the development of a strong pipeline of `bankable` agriculture infrastructure projects and assists African agribusiness SMEs in project preparation activities to ease their take-off. The fund is supported by the governments of the USA (through USAID), Denmark (through DANIDA) and Sweden …

The Vodacom Tanzania CEO, Hisham Hendi and eight co-accused were on 11^th April, 2018 released after pleading guilty to the accusations against them and paying Tshs.6 billion ($2.6 million) fine.

On top of the fine paid, the court also confiscated the equipment that was involved in the alleged committed crime.

Vodacom Tanzania later on in the day released a press statement stating the company had agreed with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to amicably resolve the matter. The statement further read that in accordance with international best practice, Vodacom Group and Vodafone Group Plc have retained the highly respected global law firm, Squire Patton Boggs, to conduct an internal review into the facts underlying the charges brought by the DPP.

Hisham Hendi and six other officials of Vodacom Tanzania were on Wednesday 3^rd April arraigned before court for economic sabotage crimes. Mr. Hendi, an Egyptian was charged …