Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
Samia appoints Wambura as the new IGP
President Samia Suluhu appointed CP Camilius Mongoso Wambura as the new Inspector General of Police (IGP), before his appointment Wambura was serving as the Director of Criminal Investigation. The president has also appointed the outgoing IGP Simon Nyakao Sirro as Tanzania’s ambassador to Zimbabwe.
The new appointment comes with the reshuffling of ranks in the Police force, CP Liberatus Materu is now the Police Commissioner of Finance and Logistics replacing CP Hamad Khamis Hamad who is appointed as the Zanzibar Police Commissioner. CP Awadhi Juma Haji is also appointed as the Director of Operation at the Police head office.
ACP Ramadhan Hamisi Kingai who is infamously known as the crucial figure on the opposition leader Freeman Mbowe’s terrorism trial is now the Director of Criminal Investigation. DCP Faustine Constatine Shilogile is also appointed as the Commissioner of Community Policing replacing CP Mussa Ali Mussa.
IMF approves Sh2.4 trillion loan to Tanzania
The Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved a 40-month $1,046.4 million loan to Tanzania, with about $151.7 million to be disbursed immediately to “catalyze additional bilateral and multilateral financial support,” the fund said in a statement.
The 40-month financing package will assist the economic recovery and address the spillovers from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, help preserve macroeconomic stability, and support structural reforms toward sustainable and inclusive growth, drawing on the government’s priorities, the fund said.
“Reforms will focus on strengthening fiscal space for much-needed social spending and high-yield public investment, resuming and advancing the authorities’ structural reform agenda and strengthening financial deepening and stability,” it added.
IMF Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair Bo Li said in a statement that the loan would help catalyze additional external financing, support a gradual recovery while increasing social and development spending, and anchor the country’s National Development Plan.
On June 9, 2022, Tanzania closed a deal with the IMF over a $1.071 billion loan that the East African nation needed in mobilizing domestic revenue.
The loan was on top of the IMF emergency assistance to Tanzania under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) that the Bretton Wood institution acknowledged to have supported Tanzania’s efforts to “step-up the pandemic response, address fiscal pressures engendered by the pandemic response, and close financing needs.”
AfDB approves $73.5 million to boost food production in Tanzania
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a $73.5 million loan to finance a program that will boost Tanzania’s food production by a million tonnes in three years, the bank announced Tuesday.
The money will be used to fund a three-year Tanzania Agricultural Inputs Support Project (September 2022-June 2025) which was designed under the Bank Group’s African Emergency Food Production Facility to tackle a potential food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The project seeks to strengthen the country’s capacity to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat and edible oil production by 2030, the bank said in a statement.
“The Russia-Ukraine conflict, combined with the impacts from Covid-19, climate change, and resultant high prices for fuel and fertilizer, has an adverse impact on poverty and food insecurity,” Nnenna Nwabufo, the Bank’s Director General for East Africa, said. “Increases in the cost of edible oils, rice and wheat will affect all households, but hit the poorest most severely.”
Tanzania imports more than 90 per cent of its wheat, 67 per cent of which comes from Russia and Ukraine, 47 per cent of vegetable oils from the two countries, and about 25 per cent of fertilizer from Russia, according to the bank’s analysis.
Recent estimates show that the combined food, fuel, and fertilizer shocks will lead to an additional 1.2 million people falling below the poverty line, the bank said. The fertilizer shock is most detrimental for poorer rural households, which rely more heavily on agriculture for their income and spend a larger share of their income on food.
The projected additional production will directly benefit 1.2 million households. Other beneficiaries will include 1,000 small and medium-scale seed producers and agro-dealers and 10,000 unemployed young women and men through jobs in the wheat, sunflower and fertilizer value chains.
Under the project, land under wheat production will increase from 100,000 ha to 400,000 ha by 2025. Yields of wheat, sunflower and rice will double through the use of improved climate-resilient seeds.
Minister of Agriculture Hussein Bashe said the project aligns with Tanzania’s Development Plan to boost agricultural production, enhance incomes, create employment, and diversify products, the statement released yesterday said.
Mpango to the international community: Address challenges facing oceans
Vice-President Philip Mpango on Tuesday called on the international community to address challenges facing the world’s oceans, including climate change.
Mpango, whose office is responsible for environment and Union affairs, made the call when he addressed the UN workshop on a regular process for global reporting and assessment of the marine environment in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
The VP said that the world’s oceans and seas continue to suffer from increased acidification, coral bleaching, eutrophication, marine litter and microplastics, and land-based sources of pollution along with climate change effects.
“This indeed endangers the planet’s largest ecosystem and billions of livelihoods depending on them,” he said.
He said the ocean plays a role in almost every aspect of life on earth including food systems, climate stabilization, transport, livelihood and health.
However, it is sad to see that, despite the understanding of such potential, the ocean remains to be an under-appreciated resource on the planet, said Mpango.
“We should not allow for this to continue. It is about time we find ways to properly regulate and responsibly manage our activities in the oceans,” said Mpango.
He reiterated that Tanzania has attempted to put forth appropriate measures, including a total ban on single-use plastic carrier bags, dedicating marine protected areas, controlling blast fishing and strengthening surveillance and monitoring of deep-sea fishing activities to protect the quality of the marine environment and livelihood.
Tanzania gold sales value rose 22pc in 1Q of 2022
The value of gold sold by Tanzania rose 22 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the same period last year, the Bank of Tanzania said Monday.
The value of gold sold rose to Sh517.8 billion ($222.9 million), up from Sh424.0 billion on year, the bank said in its consolidated economic zonal performance report.
The rise in the value of gold sold, which accounted for 94.3 per cent of total mineral sales during the reviewed period, was largely attributed to a rise in volume and price, the bank said.
“The increase in gold price reflects increased demand in the world market partly due to geopolitical tensions following the Russia-Ukraine war,” the bank said.
The volume sold wasn’t disclosed in the report. However, the value of gold sales fell by 4.6 per cent when compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, the bank said.
The decline was mainly due to a slowdown in production, according to the bank’s monthly economic review for May.
Gold is currently Tanzania’s main foreign-exchange earner after overtaking tourism in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions, according to the bank.
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