Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Thursday, November 10, 2022.

Samia meets Egypt’s El-Sisi

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Wednesday met and held talks with her Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El Sisi where the two leaders discussed the importance of promoting integration between them, especially in the area of trade.

According to reports by a number of the Egyptian press, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the ongoing COP27 conference which is taking place in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

President El Sisi is reported to tell his Tanzanian counterpart that Egypt is keen on promoting ties with Tanzania at all levels, especially in its investments in the vital sectors, topped by the construction of the Julius Nyerere Dam to generate hydroelectric power.

He underlined the crucial role played by Tanzania as one of the active countries in Africa, commending the East African nation’s efforts to promote security and stability in the continent.

In turn, President Samia hailed the deeply-rooted relations between Egypt and Tanzania in the various spheres, affirming her keenness on further promoting ties with Egypt, reports indicate.

Samia is reported to have said that there are broad prospects for developing cooperation between the two countries in numerous fields, especially at the economic level.

President Samia also extended thanks to Egypt for its distinguished contribution to development efforts, especially in the construction of the Julius Nyerere Dam.

The Nile water issue was also raised during the talks, reports suggest, where an agreement was reached between the two leaders to support the development path of the Nile Basin countries.

Mbowe elected co-chairperson of the Democrat Union of Africa

CHADEMA national chairperson Freeman Mbowe has been elected as the co-chairperson of the Democrat Union of Africa (UDA), an alliance of centre-right political parties in Africa, during a conference that took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from November 6 to November 9, 2022.

Mr Mbowe will jointly lead UDA with Louisa Atta- Agyemang, a Ghanaian politician with the country’s ruling party New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was also elected co-chaiperson during the alliance’s annual general meeting.

According to a statement by CHADEMA, the alliance decided to have two chairpersons so as to ensure effective management of its activities, which include “the propagation of the centre-right ideology across the African continent,” the party said.

By becoming UDA’s co-chairperson, Mr Mbowe automatically becomes one of the deputy chairpersons of the International Democrat Union (IDU), an international alliance of centre-right political parties.

In its congratulatory message, the Young Democrat Union of Africa (YDUA), the youth wing of the UDA, said Mr Mbowe is no stranger in the political arena.

“He has suffered political persecution while fighting for a just system in Tanzania,” YDUA’s Secretary General Inna Hengari said in a statement. “His unwavering spirit is an added win for the DUA community.”

On March 4, 2022, Tanzanian authorities freed Mr Mbowe after having spent 226 days in prison after he was accused of terrorism and economic sabotage.

He was freed after the prosecutor’s office said it longer has an interest in pursuing the case that CHADEMA had called trumped up one.

Full story here.

World Bank: Zanzibar’s economic growth doesn’t translate into improved well-being

Zanzibar experienced substantial growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita between 2009 and 2019, but the transmission of growth into increased consumption of households was low.

This is according to the new World Bank Group report, Towards a More Inclusive Zanzibar Economy: Zanzibar Poverty Assessment 2022, released on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.

According to the report, household consumption growth during the 2009–2015 period and the 2015–2019 period was moderate and relatively low given the high economic growth that took place.

Real GDP per capita has grown at an average rate of 3 per cent per year and rose from $712 in 2009 to $950 in 2019, an increase of 33 per cent.

Real consumption per capita, as measured by the Household Budget Surveys (HBSs), grew by only 18 per cent between 2009 and 2019.

“Only a little more than half of GDP per capita growth translated into increased household consumption and better welfare, as measured by the HBS,” the World Bank says, “suggesting that quality of growth was insufficient to translate into a commensurate improvement in the population’s welfare.”

Full story here.

ATCL reschedules, cancels a number of domestic flights

Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) on Thursday announced that it cutting short a number of its routes and subsequently suspended some flights that were already scheduled this month for technical reasons.

ATCL Director General Ladislaus Matindi was quoted as saying that the national airline has been forced to suspend some flights to repair its PW1524G-3 engines currently used by Airbus A220-300.

It is not clear how many flights and destinations will be affected by the latest decision but Matindi described the decision as “a professional instruction” taken to provide quality and safe service.

Matindi said the scheduled maintenance will run for at least six weeks. A statement released earlier by the airline described the process as normal, calling it “a requirement from the manufacturer.”

“This is only for internal flights,” the statement added. “We are going to cancel some due to the maintenance challenges and depending on the number of our aeroplanes and as of now we can’t say which region will be affected, we are still looking into the matter.”

ATCL said that the decision is just temporary as they give time for the engine manufacturers to address the problem while apologizing to their customers for all inconveniences.

World Bank Tanzania welcomes new country director

The World Bank Group has appointed Nathan Belete as the new Country Director for Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Mr Belete is an Ethiopian national and a development professional with over 25 years of work experience across Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.

He was previously the World Bank’s Country Director for Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal, based in Dakar.

According to a statement which was released on Thursday, Mr Belete will be based in Dar es Salaam from where he will oversee a portfolio of about $12.5 billion in total commitments for the four countries.

This support covers priority areas of human capital, agriculture, infrastructure, private sector development, climate, and gender, among others.

Prior to Mr Belete’s country director assignments, he managed the World Bank’s Food and Agriculture Global Practice in East Asia and Pacific Region, based in Vietnam, from 2014 to 2019, the statement said.

Prior to that, he was the Sector Manager for the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department in Indonesia.

His career at the World Bank has included assignments in the World Bank’s country offices in Nairobi, New Delhi, and Beijing with responsibilities for investments and technical assistance activities in agriculture and rural development, among others.

Mwinyi appoints new ZEC director, makes other appointments

Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi on Thursday reshuffled his team of Permanent Secretaries, appointing one of them as the new Director of the Zanzibar Election Commission (ZEC)

According to a statement issued by the Isle’s Chief of Secretary Zena Said, President Mwinyi appointed Mr Thabit Idarous Faina as the director of Zanzibar’s electoral body. Prior to the appointment, Mr Faina was a Permanent Secretary in the office of the Second Vice President.

ACT Wazalendo has so far responded to the appointment by calling for President Mwinyi to revoke the appointment of Mr Faina, saying he lack integrity to run the post. “Mr Faina was the Director of Election between 2017 and 2020” reads part of the statement from ACT Wazalendo, “He is the one who supervised the 2020 election which brought division and great pain.”

In its statement, ACT Wazalendo which is part of the ruling Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zanzibar, called for President Mwinyi to live his word regarding reconciliation. The party emphasized that the recent appointment only serve president Mwinyi’s interest and not that of national unit.

President Mwinyi also appointed Dr Islam Seif Salum as Permanent Secretary in the office of the Second Vice President. He was previously serving as a Permanent Secretary (Labour and Empowerment) in the President’s Offices of Labour and Economic Affairs, a post now taken by Ms Maryam Juma Saadala.

Ms Saadala was a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Of Community Development, Gender, Women and Children, a vacuum covered by Abeida Rashid Abdallah’s appointment into the office as the new PS. Mr Abdallah was a Deputy in the same office.

Others were, Ali Khamis Juma who was named as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Of Trade and Industrial Development, Khamis Abdullah Said was appointed as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and Saleh Juma Mussa as Permanent Secretary in the President’s Office.

Prior to their appointments, Dr Juma was a Permanent Secretary in the Education and Vocational Training, Khamis Abdullah Said was a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports while Saleh Juma Mussa was a Senior Officer in the President’s Office.

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