Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Monday, July 24, 2023.

Africa Heads of State Human Capital Summit kicks off in Dar

The Africa Heads of State Human Capital Summit is expected to kick off in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday as delegates from across the continent gather in Tanzania’s commercial capital to reiterate the need to invest in the people to ensure Africa’s prosperity.

Taking place from July 25 to July 26, the summit takes place under the theme ‘Accelerating Africa’s Economic Growth: Boosting Youth Productivity by Improving Learning and Skills.’

It comes in response to engagements with government focal points on the need to draw attention to the role of human capital in economic growth and elevate the discussion on the importance of investing in people.

Several former and serving African leaders arrived in Dar es Salaam Monday for the summit, including former First Lady of Mozambique Graca Machel and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Demeke Mekonnen.

They are among at least 1,200 delegates from 30 African countries expected to park the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) from Tuesday to Wednesday to deliberate, share the latest knowledge on human capital, and conclude with concrete commitments and next steps from the participating Heads of State.

Addressing the Youth Side Event of the Summit at Hyatt Regency yesterday, Nathan Belete, World Bank Country Director, defined human capital as the health, knowledge, and skills people accumulate over their lifetimes.

“It’s what determines a person’s productivity and earnings, and often, it’s the only asset poor people have,” Mr Belete said. “Human capital trajectories are set before a child is born, and human capital is rapidly accumulated during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Breaking the cycle of intergenerational inequality requires significant investments in human capital from the earliest age.”

Highlighting the essence of the summit, Belete said by 2075, one-third of the world’s population—and the working-age population—will be African, describing the continent as the only region in the world where the workforce will continue to grow in the coming decades – with the working-age population (now at just over 600 million, as of 2020) expected to grow by 450 million by 2035 and reach 1.5 billion people by 2075.

The Summit starting [today] will bring focus and attention at the highest level to the

importance of investing in people as a core driver of productivity, resilience, and growth; raise awareness of the potential opportunities from the changing demographics in the region; underscore the urgent need to focus on learning and skills as key productivity drivers that will generate the demographic dividend and position human capital development as every sector’s priority,” he said.

We anticipate that the Summit will also elicit commitments to two to three tangible financial and policy measures prioritising investments in people from each participating country and will reinforce ownership of the human capital agenda by the region as one of the priority areas of sustainable development under the Agenda 2063 of the African Union,” Mr Belete explained, adding: “The Summit is also designed to foster enhanced regional and donor cooperation on sustainable human capital development, particularly on learning outcomes and skills.”

Govt aspirations on increased seeds production start to fetch successes

Efforts by the government to improve the production and availability of seed varieties in the country for the metamorphosis of the agriculture sector are finally taking good shape.

During the current fiscal year, the government rolled out at least Sh360 billion to facilitate a major project for installing modern irrigation schemes at its seed estates.

Under the initiative, the government’s chief focus is to ensure the country starts to produce seeds for key economic cash crops throughout the year, thus, improving the country’s crop export incomes from the current Sh1.2 billion annually to at least Sh5 billion by 2030.

Being the project’s first leg, the Tanzania Agricultural Seeds Agency (ASA) has installed at least seven state-of-the-art irrigation infrastructures at its Tabora-based Kilimi seeds farm in the Nzega district, covering 200 hectares in the first phase.

The other 200 hectares will be facilitated under the second phase of the vital project undertaken by Pro Agro Global Company Ltd.

ASA Chief Executive Officer Sophia Kashenge explained that the vision was to install all the farms with similar infrastructures, depending on the needed funds from the state coffer.

However, she said a similar project was being implemented at the other two seeds farms, including Msimba (200 ha) and the Ngaramtoni in Arusha, covering 200 hectares.

Dr Kashenge said Tanzania needs an estimated 250,000 hectares to quench the county’s seeds thirst by producing at least 300,000 tons annually.

“The total area used for seeds production in the country is currently around 16,000 hectares, whereby seeds production is only at 50,000 tons,” she told The Chanzo.

Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe said the plan was to seek more lands across the country where seeds for diverse crops will be produced throughout the year.

Apart from the plan, Bashe unveiled that the government will continue to work round the clock to equip ASA with cloud-connected machines to push for the production of quality seeds.

“The vision is to produce enough seeds to cater for home demand,” Bashe explained. “But also to market the others in the neighbouring countries.”

The government has facilitated the seeds agency to install the Sh800 million-modern seeds processing machine at its Morogoro-based Msimba seed farm in the Kilosa district.

With an installation capacity to process at least 3 tons of seeds per hour, the modern agro facility is projected to play a key role in helping improve the country’s performance in producing improved seed varieties.

ASA Board of Directors Chairperson Dr Ashura Kihupi expressed satisfaction with the manner in which the government has been facilitating the Agency to fulfil its key roles.

Together with that, speaking during a special tour of the Kilimi Seed farm to inspect the good progression of the project, Dr Kihupi also hailed the ASA’s management for making sober use of the funds being injected by the government towards their side.

Of Tanzanian politicians demanding to be treated as parents

There is something disturbingly condescending about some Tanzanian politicians demanding to be treated as parents. During election seasons, they’d go as far as kneeling to beg for votes. But once in office, they become insecure, attention-seeking parents constantly needing their children’s approval.

Seldom do they act in a way that would actually earn them the respect and adoration of their children, such as putting citizens’ interests before theirs, as a good parent would do. In their minds, simply being over 40 years old convinces them that they’ve earned that father/mother title.

They don’t realise that even biological parents may not automatically earn the privilege of being a father or mother, like some sick men who molest their daughters or the barbaric mothers who would burn their little boys’ fingers for picking a piece of meat from the kitchen pot.

Worst still, they have infused this twisted notion even in the public offices they occupy, treating visiting citizens as toddlers to be told what kind of clothes they should wear. Women, in particular, pay a higher price.

Full analysis here.

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