Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Tuesday, October 4, 2022.

Samia addresses WISH 2022, holds talks with Amir of Qatar

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Tuesday met and held talks with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as the Tanzanian leader is visiting the Middle Eastern country to participate in the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH).

According to a report by the Peninsula Qatar, the two leaders discussed cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to enhance and develop them in various fields, in addition to discussing a number of regional and international issues of common interest.

WISH s a global initiative whose aim is to ‘promote and facilitate innovation in healthcare delivery around the world. This year, the three-day conference is taking place under the theme ‘Healing the Future.’

In its eighth version, the summit will include a major focus on exploring the potential health legacy of the FIBA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament, as well as other key areas of focus such as the post-COVID-19 legacy, disability and accessibility, and health wellbeing.

Speaking during the event, President Samia said that Tanzania has experienced positive impacts with regard to innovation in its health sector, thanks to health-related innovations in sub-Saharan countries in Africa.

“Manufacturing of mobile incubators is another innovation that facilitates referral of neonatal from one facility to another, this initiatives significantly decreased neonatal death in one region,” the government-owned Daily News newspaper quoted Samia as saying.

“I, therefore, urge you all to take this opportunity to seek ideas and discuss the best ways to address these challenges especially when innovation is focusing to address people’s needs,” the Head of State emphasised.

Mwinyi points out four issues to be considered for any reconciliation process to succeed

Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi on Tuesday pointed out four issues that he said have to be considered if a political reconciliation process is to succeed.  

Dr Mwinyi mentioned the four issues of consideration while inaugurating a three-day conference organised to discuss better ways that multiparty democracy can be improved in the country.

The conference has been jointly organised by the Zanzibar State House, the Office of Second Vice President in Zanzibar and the Office of Party Registrar. 

It brought together stakeholders from political parties, civil society and academia to deliberate on ways that political pluralism can be improved in the isles.

“The first issue is goodwill,” President Mwinyi told the conference’s participants. “We will never reconcile if instead of cooperating to solve the rising challenges we find excuses to blame each other.”

The second building block of a working reconciliation that President Mwinyi mentioned concerned the culture of tolerance. He said: “No social reconciliation will be successful if on a daily basis you keep reminding each other of mistreatment you’ve done each other in the past. The heart of reconciliation is the bravery of letting bygones be bygones.”

The third issue that President Mwinyi mentioned is trust, saying that no reconciliation can be achieved if the parties concerned do not trust each other and find whatever excuse of blaming each other.

“The fourth issue,” Mr Mwinyi said, “is to agree on the division of responsibilities within the framework of the reconciliation that has been achieved.”

The conference is taking place alongside the ongoing process initiated by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to achieve reconciliation between her party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the government and opposition parties.

The process involves discussions on important reforms that are needed within the institutions that regulate political activities in the country whose alleged favouritism towards CCM has put the party at loggerheads with opposition parties.

The end goal of such a process is the amendment, for example, of all electoral laws and regulations; laws governing security organs in the country; as well as the revival of the stalled constitution-writing process.  

Burj Zanzibar: Z’bar set to build world’s tallest timber apartment tower

The semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar is planning the highest green building in the world, a 28-storey apartment tower designed in hybrid timber technology, according to a statement released on Tuesday. 

Named Burj Zanzibar – “burj” meaning tower in Arabic – the spectacular high-rise is designed to reach 96 metres in height. 

Dubbed “vertical green village”, it would represent an iconic landmark not only for the island but for the whole of Africa and a global environmental milestone, being the first timber structure worldwide of such proportions. 

According to the press release, the design of the mixed-use apartment and commercial building, in a playful beehive style with breathtaking ocean views, was unveiled to the public in Muscat, Oman on October 1, 2022. 

The statement quoted Dutch-born architect Leander Moons, responsible for the concept, as saying: “Burj Zanzibar is not just an outstanding building but a new ecosystem for the future of living.”

The residential tower with 266 residences is to be located in Fumba Town, East Africa’s pioneering eco-town developed by German-led engineering firm CPS. 

Categorised as a strategic investment and fully supported by the Zanzibar government, the growing city near the capital, where foreigners are allowed to buy, stretches along a 1.5-kilometre seashore on the southwest coast. 

“Burj Zanzibar will be the highlight and natural continuation of our efforts to provide sustainable housing in Africa, thereby empowering local employment and businesses”, CPS CEO Sebastian Dietzold is quoted as saying in the statement.

With turquoise seas, white sandy beaches and a UNESCO-protected historic Stone Town, Zanzibar recorded 15 per cent annual growth in tourism in recent years and 6.8 per cent economic growth, according to the press release. 

The statement also noted that earlier this year, the semi-autonomous archipelago, 35 kilometres off the coast of Tanzania, stretched its wings also into another direction, launching an initiative to attract African tech companies with a total worth of six billion dollars.

World Bank forecasts grim economic prospects for Sub-Sharan African countries

According to the World Bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse, a biannual analysis of the near-term regional macroeconomic outlook, economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is set to decelerate from 4.1 per cent in 2021 to 3.3 per cent in 2022, a downward revision of 0.3 percentage points since April’s Pulse forecast, the international lender said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the bank, the reduction is mainly the result of a slowdown in global growth, including flagging demand from China for commodities produced in Africa. 

The war in Ukraine is exacerbating already high inflation and weighing on economic activity by depressing both business investments and household consumption, the bank added. As of July 2022, 29 of 33 countries in SSA with available information had inflation rates over 5 per cent while 17 countries had double-digit inflation.

“These trends compromise poverty reduction efforts that were already set back by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement quoted Andrew Dabalen, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa, as saying. 

“What is most worrisome is the impact of high food prices on people struggling to feed their families, threatening long-term human development,” Dabalen added. “This calls for urgent action from policymakers to restore macro-economic stability and support the poorest households while reorienting their food and agriculture spending to achieve future resilience.”

Elevated food prices are causing hardships with severe consequences in one of the world’s most food-insecure regions, World Bank reported. 

“Hunger has sharply increased in SSA in recent years driven by economic shocks, violence and conflict, and extreme weather,” its statement reads in part. “More than one in five people in Africa suffer from hunger and an estimated 140 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2022, up from 120 million people in 2021, according to the Global Report on Food Crises 2022 Mid-Year Update.”

This challenging environment makes it essential to improve the efficiency of existing resources and to optimize taxes, the bank suggests. 

“In the agriculture and food sector, for example, governments have the opportunity to protect human capital and climate-proof food production by re-orienting their public spending away from poorly targeted subsidies toward nutrition-sensitive social protection programs, irrigation works, and research and development are known to have high returns,” it suggests.

For example, one dollar invested in agricultural research yields, on average, benefits equivalent to $10, while gains from investments in irrigation are also potentially high in SSA, the bank estimated. 

“Such reprioritization maintains the level of spending in a critical sector while raising productivity, building resilience to climate change, and achieving food security for all,” the bank explained. “Creating a better environment for agribusiness and facilitating intra-regional food trade could also increase long-term food security in a region that is highly dependent on food imports.”

Marula invests in high-grade copper mining project in Tanzania

Africa-focused mining investment company Marula Mining has entered into a binding head of agreement with Tanzanian mining company Takela Mining Tanzania and has secured a 49 per cent commercial interest in the Kinusi copper mining project, which comprises ten granted copper mining licences.

According to a report by Mining Weekly, the signing of the agreement with Takela follows a detailed legal and technical due diligence process and site visits to inspect the licence areas, the existing small-scale mining operations and initial sampling of some of the copper ores mined and visible mineralisation.

Marula affirms that that investment is firmly in line with its battery metals focus and identification of high-grade, near-term production and cash flow generating projects.

Marula will advance funds to Takela to allow it to complete additional exploration and expansion and development on the licences and to the current small-scale mining activities.

Marula has reimbursed $50 000 of costs incurred to date by Takela and will also issue 4.5-million ordinary shares in the company to Takela.

The licences are valid for a period of seven years and are located in Kinusi, in the Mpwapwa district, in the Dodoma region of central Tanzania.

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