Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Thursday, February 16, 2023.

Kenyan HotelOnline, MTI Investment launch sustainable booking site in Zanzibar

Kenyan digital revenue partner HotelOnline has partnered with MTI Investments to launch a sustainable booking portal in Zanzibar that will link sustainable tourism with sustainable waste management.

According to a report by Kenya’s Capital FM, the portal will provide hotels with increased visibility, recognition for their sustainable practices, and access to a large network of booking agents and travellers interested in sustainable tourism.

The portal was initially developed to help travel agents across the world better select hotels that are verified to be using sustainable waste management practices in Zanzibar.

Specifically excluded from the portal are hotels using a waste management service provider engaged in illegal dumping, burning the waste openly, or other unsustainable waste management practices.

HotelOnline was founded by Håvar Bauck and his friend Endre Opdal while visiting Kenya.

The platform offers a turnkey bundle of technology and services to help hotels streamline their operations and significantly increase their revenue by boosting their digital distribution.

They are working with more than 5,000 hotels in 27 African countries. They have processed more than 500,000 bookings so far.

MTI Investment SE is a Nordic investment and venture-building company, founded in 2014 by a team with extensive experience in emerging markets to invest in East African small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) with high value-adding potential.

India’s top technology university finalizes plans to set up campus in Tanzania

A team of five professors from one of India’s best universities, the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras (IIT-Madras) have visited Tanzania recently as part of the university’s preparatory plans to set up a campus in Tanzania.

According to information shared by India’s High Commissioner to Tanzania Binya Pradhan in his Twitter account, the delegation met and held talks with ministers of education from both Tanzania and Zanzibar as well as Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi.

Hailing the offshore campus as something that is instrumental in nation-building, Pradhan thanked Tanzanian authorities for their support towards the project.

“This would be the first IIT to be set up in Africa and can be instrumental in the growth and nation-building of not only Tanzania but of the continent; sincere gratitude to HE President of Zanzibar, Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, for his constant support for the project,” added Pradhan in a Twitter post.

The delegation visited Tanzania almost seven months after IIT-Madras Director Prof V Kamakoti told The Indian Express on July 25, 2022, that is considering establishing a campus in Tanzania as the Indian government works on a plan to ensure the country’s premier engineering institutes have a presence on the world map.

“IIT Madras is in discussions with multiple countries, including Tanzania, regarding offshore campuses,” the paper quoted Prof Kamakoti as saying. “We are considering many of these places. For African countries, programmes in mining are very important. In Nepal, there are demands for courses on energy systems. Courses in data sciences are in demand everywhere.”

IIT-Madras is considered to be the best engineering institute among all the technology institutes in India. For the 6th consecutive year, IIT-Madras is ranked at 1st in the engineering category of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), a methodology adopted by the Indian ministry of education.

As per the 2022 report, the institute bags 1st position in the overall, 2nd in research institutes, and 10th in the management category of NIRF rankings 2022. The university is ranked 250th position in the QS World University Rankings 2023.

Govt allows importing 90,000 tonnes of rice to cushion rising prices of staple food crop

The Minister for Investment, Industry and Trade Ashatu Kijaji on Wednesday said that the government has allowed local traders to import 90,000 tonnes of rice duty-free to cushion rising prices of the staple food crop.

Dr Kijaji was quoted in the press as saying that the rice to be imported this month will be sold at indicative prices to be given by the government to ensure that the staple food crop is sold at affordable prices.

Kijaji told a news conference in Dar es Salaam that the government will continue to evaluate prices of staple food crops and other important products in the country with a view to providing the right information to people on the prices.

“This information is important to enable producers of food crops, consumers, industrialists and traders to get the right information on the prices of the food crops to enable them to make the right decisions,” she said.

This is it for today and we hope you enjoyed our briefing. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter (see below) or following us on Twitter (here) or joining us on Telegram (here). And in case you have any questions or comments, please consider dropping a word to our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.