Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Thursday, December 2, 2021.

Samia meets former PM Warioba, Msuya

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday on different occasions met and held talks with two former Prime Ministers in what the State House said was normal meetings aimed at greeting the former senior government officials and know how they are doing.

President Samia first met with Cleopa David Msuya at the latter’s place for the same purpose of greeting him.

Mr Msuya served as Tanzania’s Prime Minister between November 7, 1980, and February 24, 1983, and again from December 7, 1994, to November 28, 1995.

Samia also met and held talks with Joseph Sinde Warioba at the latter’s place in Oysterbay, Dar es Salaam.

Warioba served as Prime Minister of Tanzania from 1985 to 1990. He also served concurrently as the country’s Vice-President. He has also served as a judge on the East African Court of Justice.

Warioba also served as a chairman of the Tanzanian Constitutional Review Commission since 2012 that came up with the famous Warioba’s Constitution Draft from which the Proposed Constitution was written.

The Proposed Constitution is waiting for a referendum, with President Samia asking for more time to ‘fix the economy’ before she can allow the referendum to take place.

This is amidst a growing movement that demands the Head of State provides the people with the New Constitution before the next election in 2025.

Belgium to give Tanzania 155,200 doses of Jansen vaccine

Tanzania will today, December 3, 2021, receive a total of 155,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Belgian government to the East African nation.

This was revealed yesterday by the deputy head of mission at the embassy of Belgium in Tanzania Petra Heylen who in a statement said that the donation aims at supporting Tanzania in its efforts to fight the global pandemic in the country.

“This donation forms part of an earlier commitment by the Government of Belgium to distribute at least 4 million vaccines to middle and low-income countries by the end of 2021,” the statement quoted Heylen as saying.

“We commend the government of Tanzania for stepping up the awareness-raising campaigns to inform the general public about the importance to get vaccinated, as well as facilitating vaccination all over the country,” added Heylen.

According to Heylen, the distribution of the vaccines in Tanzania will take place via multilateral distributor the Covax facility, and is coordinated by the United Nations children fund (UNICEF).

KCB Group calls off ABC Bank acquisition deal

KCB Bank announced on Thursday that it has ended its acquisition bid for African Banking Corporation Tanzania Limited (BancABC) due to the failure to receive regulatory approvals in the agreed time.

The ABC Bank acquisition was part of the KCB expansion bid announced on November 26, 2020, in an agreement between KCB Group and Atlas Mara.

In this deal, KCB was to acquire a 62.06 per cent stake in Banque Populaire du Rwanda Plc (BPR) of Rwanda and 100 per cent of Atlas Mara stake in African Banking Corporation Tanzania.

“The completion of the transaction was subject to certain conditions that are customary for transactions of this nature including receipt of all regulatory approvals,” KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara said in a statement.

He said without further agreement by the parties to extend the longstop date, “the Agreement has been terminated and, accordingly, the parties will not proceed to complete the Transaction as previously envisaged.”

The acquisition in Rwanda was concluded in August 2021. The Tanzania acquisition deal, which was estimated to be around $8 million, was expected to increase KCB Tanzania assets to Sh1 trillion.

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