Browsing: World Bank

Tanzania is well on its way to achieving its long coveted middle income status, and the mushrooming skyscrapers in most all its major cities are evidence. Well that’s one way to look at it.

You see, where investment is on the raise, it is safe to say the economy is stable and even growing. That is Tanzania for you, a stable growing economy where investment, especially in the real estate sector is growing, and growing exponentially.

Tanzania has been enjoying a steady economic growth over the last few years averaging an impressive 7% annually. However, for the sake of this article, lets leave the data in the papers for now and take to the streets, on the ground, what is actually happening?

In major cities like the capital Dodoma, development is hands on, on the ground right in front of you. Empty stretches of land are now housing complexes complete …

Half a decade after 22 African countries signed the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) agreement, only 8 countries have ratified the treaty.

Inked back in June of 2015 in the northern African state of Egypt, the agreement is meant to unify previously existing regional trade bodies the EAC, SADC and Comesa. A noble cause backed by an elaborate list of merits.

This latest free trade pact, the TFTA is an engine to foster intra-Africa trade that is seen as a vehicle to widen Africa trade markets within the continent itself. It is also envisioned to attract more investment, catalyze the development of regional infrastructure and very importantly, give member states a competitive trading age with the rest of the World.

Sounds ice cream coated candy, sweet deal, but five years down the road majority of the member countries remain reluctant to ratify it, why? It begs the question, is another …

Binary code is a series of 0’1 and 1’s and thanks to the digital revolution that has since unfolded, these series of 0’s and 1’s and is, in multiple digits, lifting Africa out of poverty.

Take Tanzania for instance, a low income East African nation that now has the capacity to increase its annual tax base by a whopping USD 477 million should it better regulate, promote and develop the digital money industry in the country.

Other than the financial gains that are all too obvious, using digital transactions allows for increased transparency in government payments and reduced bureaucratic inefficiencies across most all government ministries and agencies.

Tanzania ranks way up there in Africa’s digital money penetration. In just a handful of years, Tanzania’s mobile money penetration has been unprecedented. With it, “Tanzania is building a firm foundation for strong and inclusive growth and we look forward to further progress,” …

Tanzania has set regional precedence by establishing an Atomic Energy Commission and gone ahead to start construction of a state of the art laboratory designed manage use of radioactive materials.

In Sub-Sahara Africa, the country is only second to South Africa in this frontier and has already begun the first phase of construction works. Valued at 2.5bn/- the first phase of the lab construction begun last year and is designed to meet global operation and calibration standards in atomic energy and nuclear.

It may come as a surprise to you as it did to me to learn of this rather unsettling development; a third world country building an atomic management laboratory to rival world standards. Well, that is the case until you learn that this third world country is also gearing to start mining uranium.

This explanation is plausible, as we have been predisposed to this reality by Hollywood blockbuster …

The deadly coronavirus has brought the World to a standstill, spread through touch, African financial institutions are now going cashless to beat the virus.

The exchange of money, in cash, risky further spread of the virus, an obvious solution is to go cashless, use digital payments only. However is Africa ready?

In the face of this global tragedy, Africa’s fast digital penetration seems to have come in the nick of time. Led by the telecom companies, Africa leads the globe in use of mobile transactions.

Even in the most remotest corners of the continent, peasant farmers, pastoralists herding cows, all can be found with a mobile phone registered for mobile money transactions. Even the smallest shops accept mobile money payment for even the smallest purchases. The only limitation has always been the expensive cost of the service, however that cost is irrelevant if the money is not withdrawn to cash.…

China’s influence in Africa has reached historical proportions and the US, coming rather late into the game, is now attempting to ‘change Chinese narrative’ on the continent.

The US is looking to move Africa from training or rather petting the dragon to slaying it, metaphorically speaking.

The new US-Africa policy that was launched in 2018, is designed for this purpose. As a top US diplomat put it, the policy “…will continue to counter China’s influence in Africa in order to slay the dragon.”

The US would have Africa and the World at large know, the continent is now getting “the attention it deserves from senior US officials.”

With the new policy, that is meant to guide bilateral relations with Africa, the US is trying to improve its public diplomacy outreach.

As China continues to assert itself on the continent with ever more development pacts, the US is now trying to …

A Zimbabwean public service officer, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) is allegedly involved in a graft cases that has cost the agency losses in excess of USD40 million.

Mr Frank Chitukutuku, the accused official, is facing  a list of economic sabotage cases all surrounding what local media is calling ‘dubious payments’ for supposed public works.  The list of irregularities is long, from payments for substandard work to over payment for projects without the agency’s board ever approving.

There are also issues of flouting tender procedures, hand-picking firms, payment for incomplete work and the bias awarding of projects in favour of companies that he has interest in or belonging to individuals in his favour.

Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development deliberated the matter in detail earlier this month and resolved to fire the CEO while legal proceedings are underway.

Among the …

Based in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, Coop Bank is growing by leaps and bounds, with profits up 29 percent in the 2018/19 financial year closing the year with USD 20.4 million under lock and key.

More than profit, the Bank also enjoyed huge growth if it’s total assets which shot up by 40 percent, a sector high for Ethiopia’s banking industry. Likewise, its loans and advances also went up an impressive 56 percent representing more than double its performance in the previous year.

The bank has credited the asset growth to deposit mobilisation which pushed up loans and advances. The bank had yet an impressive growth this time in deposits which increased 40 percent.

Coop Bank mustered its investment in NBE bonds which it increased to more than double (53%) of what it had in the previous financial year. Further still, this immense investment represents 20 percent of its …

In the backdrop of Tanzania’s Central Bank announcing a stimulus package for commercial banks, loans advanced by banks have shot up significantly over the last year and the stimulus package is expected to sustain if not increase lending.

The Central Bank, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has this week released its Consolidated Zonal Economic Performance Report which shows lending by commercial banks have increased considerably in the last year.

The report shows that the highest amount of growth in bank loans was parallel to ongoing national infrastructure development works. The highest increase in loans was to companies operating in the central and south eastern zones owing to increased construction projects and to trading activities, respectively.

This would explain reduced lending in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. Lending in the bustling port city actually fell 1.6 percent compared to the same period last year.  However, despite the percentage decrease, …

Food security has always been a matter of much concern across Africa, the threat has only been extenuated by the worsening coronavirus outbreak.

With the rest of the World tied up with response to the coronavirus in their own countries, scientists in Africa have to step up to the food security threat on the continent.

Up to the task are Tanzanian scientists who early this week, in the nick of time, announced a breakthrough in maize research that may very well answer the impending food security threat.

The Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, announced its scientists have developed two genetically modified maize varieties that to a great extent, stand to solve the food security issue in the country and region at large.

First is a maize variety that is much higher in protein concentration than the regular maize types now been grown across the country. This variety will serve to give …