Tanzania Foreign Investment News (Page 15)

Tanzanians go to the polls this year in local elections to vote for street and village chairpersons. This will be followed by a general election next year for councillors, members of parliament and the president.

Both sets of elections are being watched closely. They’re the first to be held following a raft of changes over the past eight years to drag Tanzania away from its history of operating as a one-party state and towards a more multiparty arrangement.

This history has included restrictions on opposition parties’ activities. For example, between 2016 and 2023, political rallies were banned in Tanzania. This was a huge setback given that rallies are the core campaigning and mobilising tool used by opposition political parties.

A single-party system was introduced in Tanzania in 1965. The 1977 merger of the ruling parties in the Tanzania mainland (Tanganyika African National Union) and Zanzibar (Afro-Shirazi Party) to form Chama cha Mapinduzi further entrenched the one-party state. That same year, a constitution was passed that organised Tanzania’s legal structures within a one-party system.

In 1992, the country allowed a multiparty system. This was in keeping with shifting trends across the continent and a response to calls from within and outside Tanzania for multipartyism. However, the constitution remained largely the same, with only superficial amendments. For example, electoral commissioners remain presidential appointees. The president is also the chair of the ruling party.

In 2016, the late president John Magufuli restricted the operations of opposition political parties. In 2019, a new Political Parties Act was passed to further contain opposition parties by giving the registrar wide powers to deregister parties, suspend individual members from parties and demand any information from a party.

Magufuli died in March 2021. When Samia Hassan took over as president shortly afterwards, she expressed a desire to expand the democratic space. She held dialogues with opposition leaders who raised key issues, including calls for constitutional reform. They also wanted an independent electoral commission, reforms in electoral laws and systems to allow more proportional representation, and freedom to carry out political party operations such as public rallies.

In January 2023, Hassan lifted the six-year ban on opposition-led public rallies. New electoral law amendments were also passed in March 2024. These included the Independent Electoral Commission Law and Political Parties Affairs Act. The amendments are supposed to improve fairness in the electoral process.

I have researched opposition parties in Tanzania, and analysed their efforts to survive and mobilise support. In my view, Hassan has not made a substantial difference. The reformed laws don’t bring real structural change.

While the space for campaigning and mobilising towards the 2024 and 2025 elections has widened in comparison to the period before the 2019 and 2020 elections, it still isn’t enough to facilitate free and fair elections. Opposition parties must continue to press for and demand real reforms.

State of the opposition

Over 30 years of multiparty politics in Tanzania, the sustainability of opposition parties has been questionable. Since the 1995 general elections, which were the first since the re-introduction of a multiparty system, the vote share for opposition parties has been irregular.

Different parties have dominated in opposition. In 1995, NCCR-Mageuzi was the leading opposition party with a 21.8% vote share. In the 2000 and 2005 elections, the Civic United Front was the main opposition party with a 16.2% and 11.6% vote share, respectively. From 2010 to date, Chadema has been the dominant opposition party with a 40% vote share in the 2015 election.

The 2020 elections returned Tanzania to a de facto one party state. Chadema won 13% of the vote amid claims of electoral irregularities. Parliament became a one-party house with 99% of all members being from the ruling party.

Reforms or a performance of reforms?

An analysis of the changes Hassan has passed since she came to power in 2021 doesn’t show significant change in terms of structural reforms.

For example, members of the electoral commission are still appointed by the president. Elections returning officers at district levels are also presidential appointees. The registrar of political parties remains powerful and can interfere in political parties’ affairs.

This political context hasn’t been friendly for the establishment of strong opposition parties. Although there are 19 fully registered political parties in Tanzania, only a few are strong. These are the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi, and the opposition parties Chadema and ACT-Wazalendo.

ACT-Wazalendo was the last party to be registered in Tanzania – 10 years ago. Since then, no new political party has been registered, and those that have tried have found it difficult to get through the process.

The party registration process has two stages: provisional and full registration. Each has a set of requirements that the registrar scrutinises to determine approval. This provides room for delays.

However, the overall demand for new political parties is not high in Tanzania. This could be due to factors such as:

• a lack of incentive to register a political party given the unfair political ground for opposition parties
• the bureaucratic process to register a new party
• limited ideological drive and uncertainty of public support due to developed political apathy – for instance, small opposition parties have supported the ruling party and worked against the main opposition party.

What still needs to change

There is a need for a change in political culture among ordinary citizens as well as the political class, including civil servants. The current political culture is submissive to the ruling party as a result of the entrenched party-state system. Due to this political culture, most citizens are not driven to question the system and demand change.

The call and demand for real reforms can only work when a majority of citizens support calls for new electoral laws and constitutional reforms. Otherwise, the ruling party has a false sense of confidence. Opposition parties and activists need to embark on systematic and aggressive civic education. Citizens need to believe in their civil right to demand change.

Aikande Clement Kwayu, Independent researcher & Lecturer, Tumaini University Makumira

Source: allafrica.com

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By APOLINARI TAIRO

Targeting more foreign investments, the Tanzania government has proposed amendment of its laws to grant special status to Tanzanians in diaspora, to set up business in key priority economic sectors.

Relaxing its prohibitive laws and legislations, the government has tabled to Parliament for debate, Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2024, which seeks to grant special status to Tanzanians living in other countries to set up business back home.

The proposed amendments to immigration laws are set to grant inheritance rights and investment incentives to Tanzanians living in other countries through the Diaspora Tanzanite card.

Land and property ownership in Tanzania have been limited to Tanzanian citizens only. The Miscellaneous Amendments Act, 2024 which was published on June 26, proposes changes to the Immigration Act, Cap 54 and Land Act, cap 113 to allow Tanzanians living in other countries to access land occupancy titles.

Read: Samia perfects Ruto’s game to attract trade, investment

Tanzania is among African countries with restrictive immigration laws and regulations imposed to foreigners and locals with dual citizenship on land ownership rights.

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President Samia Suluhu Hassan had earlier promised to review the Immigration Act. While addressing Tanzanians in South Korea during her six-day official visit in Seoul in June, she said her government would ensure that Tanzanians living in other countries would be given special status, including the ability to take up residence in Tanzania without passing through a complicated visa process.

She pledged a legal environment that would enable Tanzanians in the diaspora to remit money through their families back home for investments, expertise and technology needed mostly for agricultural production, manufacturing and services.

Tanzanians in the diaspora have invested about Tsh280 billion ($106 million) through housing, while others bought shares worth Tsh6.45 billion ($ 2.4 million) in the UTT Asset Management and Investors Services (UTT AMIS) by 2023, Samia told the Tanzanians in Seoul.

The Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) has been encouraging East African Community (EAC) citizens to establish joint businesses in Tanzania through harmonised regulations in the EAC region.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the East African Co-operation established a diaspora database aiming to recognise and assist Tanzanians in diaspora to register for business and investments, banking on ample and available land suitable for investments.

Despite its rich agricultural land, Tanzania had lacked vibrant investments in agriculture with little returns from cash crops and poor agro-industrial base.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that Tanzania possesses a total of 44 million hectares of land for cultivation, but only 15 million hectares are under cultivation for both cash and food crops.

Investment in livestock has been rated among lucrative business, banking on the big number of livestock and pastureland available in Tanzania.

Statistics from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries indicate that Tanzania has a stock of about 38 million heads of cattle, about 28 million goats, nine million (9 million) sheep and four (4) million pigs.

It is second in Africa with big numbers of livestock after Ethiopia, but poorly developed for higher revenue gains. Traditional livestock breeding and lack of ranching investments have slowed down livestock revenue gains.

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Washington — The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors has endorsed the new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Tanzania to support the country in consolidating its status as a middle-income country, achieving a high level of human development, and contributing to the World Bank Group’s (WBG) mission to end extreme poverty and boost prosperity on a livable planet.

The new strategy maximizes the impact of the One-WBG approach, coordinating and leveraging the strengths of the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) in the country over the period FY2025 to FY2029.

The new CPF prioritizes several key areas. First, it aims to support the country’s human development agenda. This includes providing transformative support in education, healthcare, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, and shock-responsive social protection programs, building upon the strong momentum already established by the Tanzanian government.

Secondly, the CPF will bolster the government’s goal of fostering a better environment for private sector-led growth. This will involve deepening support for reforms that strengthen the business climate, investing in infrastructure and connectivity to facilitate economic activity, and modernizing Tanzania’s productive sectors. Additionally, the CPF aims to leverage the country’s strategic geographic location to promote inclusive growth both domestically and throughout the sub-region.

Finally, the CPF will support Tanzania’s crucial and multi-prong resilience agenda, focusing on climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, alongside efforts to strengthen the country’s economic resilience. Progress toward these objectives is underpinned by two cross-cutting priorities: increased empowerment of women and youth and improved government effectiveness with more efficient, transparent, and accountable institutions.

“We have seen tremendous progress with recent policy changes, such as increasing access to education for all girls coupled with broader reforms such as vocational training,” said Nathan Belete, World Bank Country Director. “Girls and boys now have multiple pathways to complete their secondary education and the Fee-free Basic Education Policy has had an incredible impact, opening doors for 4.5 million new students. With such renewed commitment to human development and inclusion by the government, the outlook for inclusive growth and poverty reduction is favorable.”

The CPF is informed by extensive consultations with a wide range of stakeholders as well as a country opinion survey and is aligned with the priorities identified in Tanzania’s Third Five-Year Development Plan and Zanzibar’s Five-Year Development Plan. The CPF’s focus on private sector-led growth is consistent with IFC’s Creating Markets Strategy which aims to support conditions for private enterprises to efficiently contribute to inclusive development.

“Private sector participation is critical to any economy’s growth and development. To address Tanzania’s development goals, including poverty reduction and job creation, the country has an opportunity to further leverage private sector-driven economic growth. IFC will continue to work closely with our public and private sector partners, as well as with our colleagues across the World Bank Group, to unlock the conditions needed to further support inclusive finance, agribusiness, manufacturing, and sustainable infrastructure through investments, advisory and upstream support,” said Mary Porter Peschka, IFC’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa.

“In recent years, MIGA has seen a significant increase in investor interest in Tanzania, thanks to reforms undertaken by the government,” said Șebnem Erol Madan, Director of Economics and Sustainability at MIGA. “As part of the new CPF, MIGA will continue to support financial inclusion and climate finance initiatives and will leverage the new World Bank Group guarantee platform to support the country in attracting and mobilizing private capital in other sectors, including renewable power and digital.”

The CPF builds on a well-performing WBG portfolio in the country. Through the CPF 2018-2022, the World Bank provided over $9 billion dollars of financing that delivered important improvements for Tanzanians, such as:

• Increased access to safe water for nearly 4.7 million people which helped reduce the disease burden and improved school attendance and completion rates, particularly for girls.
• Improved secondary education benefiting 2.7 million students, especially girls, by providing better-equipped secondary schools. Additionally, technical and vocational education enrollment tripled and 64% of female graduates found employment.
• Expanded access to electricity for 7.9 million people in rural areas, which enhanced their livelihoods, health, and learning opportunities.

IFC’s investment portfolio in Tanzania stands at over $400 million with investments focused in key sectors including financial institutions, agribusiness, and real estate. The IFC advisory portfolio reached $11 million in 2024. Over the last few months, MIGA has issued its first political risk guarantees in a decade in Tanzania, with guarantees in the mobile money and banking sectors. As a result, MIGA now has a portfolio of $151 million in the country and a strong pipeline in the renewable energy and digital sectors.

Source: allafrica.com

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Fake Star newspaper front page claims Tanzania will legalise same-sex marriage

IN SHORT: Fake newspaper front pages are nothing new on Kenyan social media platforms. One example, apparently from the Star newspaper, claims that Tanzania is about to legalise gay marriage.

An image of what appears to be the front page of Kenya’s Star newspaper has been posted on X (formerly Twitter) with the headline: “Tanzania to legalize gay marriage.”

The front page is dated 5 June 2024 and features a photo of Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu.

The subheading on the front page reads: “Majority of MPs in the Tanzanian parliament are expected to vote for the passing of the bill into law.”

The front page has also been posted on Facebook.

Same-sex marriage isn’t just unrecognised in Tanzania – it’s illegal.

Same-sex marriage is still frowned upon in much of conservative East Africa. Given this, is this a legitimate front page of the Star newspaper? We checked.

‘Fake,’ says the Star

On 6 June, the Star posted the circulating front page on its social media accounts with the word “fake” printed in red.

“This post is not associated with us in any way and should be treated as FAKE. Get the real copy on our official verified pages,” the Star said on its official Facebook page.

Africa Check also looked through the Star’s front page archive and found a different one for 5 June. The authentic front page headline reads: “Counties blow Sh146bn on pay, projects suffer.”

The front page circulating on social media is fabricated and should be ignored.

Source: allafrica.com

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ELECTRICITY generation in Tanzania has surpassed the increasing demand driven by the expanding economy and rapid urbanization, largely due to significant contributions from the partially operational Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project Plant.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Engineer Felchesmi Mramba, highlighted this development during his visit to the Ministry of Energy’s pavilion at the ongoing 48th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.

Tanzania is blessed with diverse energy sources including biomass, natural gas, hydro, coal, geothermal, solar, wind, and uranium, many of which remain untapped.

As of December 31st, 2023, the total installed energy capacity reached 1,938.35 Megawatts. Recently, two turbines with an installed capacity of 235 MW each at the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project Plant were commissioned in March and April this year, raising the total installed capacity to 2,408 MW.

The country’s peak demand was recorded in August 2023 at 1,482.80 MW. Eng. Mramba encouraged Tanzanians to expand their investments in sectors requiring electricity, emphasizing that supply is currently reliable and sufficient.

“Despite the existence of power sources like the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project, which has significantly increased our installed capacity to meet current and future demands, we remain committed to diversifying our energy sources,” Eng. Mramba highlighted.

He continued, stating that efforts are underway to increase capacity through various energy sources, with a focus on renewable energy.

“Projects such as the Kishapu solar power project (150 MW), wind power projects in Singida and Makambako (300 to 400 MW), Malagarasi Hydropower Project (49.5 MW), Kakono Hydropower Project (87 MW), Songwe Dam and Hydropower Plant (180.2 MW), Rumakali Hydropower Project (222 MW), and Ruhudji Hydropower Project (358 MW) are part of our strategy.”

In related news, the PS commended Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) for strengthening its operations to ensure adequate power supply.

“TANESCO has been working tirelessly to fulfill its duties, ensuring the country has sufficient electricity,” he acknowledged.

However, he urged the state-owned utility to innovate further to enhance service quality and affordability.

“Research and technology adoption in the energy sector should be a priority for us to remain competitive globally,” he emphasized.

Regarding the implementation of the National Clean Cooking Energy Strategy, he directed stakeholders to continue researching ways to improve citizens’ lives by reducing the cost of clean cooking equipment.

Source: allafrica.com

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In efforts to support the government’s campaign in using clean energy, efforts are underway to distribute nationwide technologically- advanced and environmentally safe cooking stoves.

The move the whole country embraces will likely save a million acres of forest from destruction.

Following the intended move, Tanzanians living in rural and urban areas have been encouraged to take the incoming technology of environmentally environmentally-friendly cooking stoves.

Speaking with the Daily News in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the FJM Workshop Manager Epimack Damas said the move aims to implement President Samia’s campaign to create clean and environmentally safe cooking.

The company produces modernized gas stoves, steel fabrication, and selling construction materials as well.

“As a company we have employed about 60 youth in the country and we expect to reach more people. I, therefore, encourage youth who are beneficiaries of the company to use their creativities and make a product so as to earn a profit, “he noted

Additionally, he elaborated recently at the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF), the company met with the clean energy government executives and discussed how they can produce stoves and distribute them to people at affordable price in rural and urban areas.

On his part, the JFM Marketing Manager Eugen Malkiory said that the company’s mission aims to improve operational service to save customers time noting that they produce quality products at an affordable price.

He, therefore, said they will continue to serve Tanzanians in all parts of 26 regions in the country.

The company also produces steel materials such as roofing sheets, shapes, and iron bars.

Through those products, they intend to expand the scope of foreign markets.

Source: allafrica.com

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By PATRICK ALUSHULA

Tanzania-based conglomerate with diverse interests in energy, construction, food and transport has made a $180 million bid to acquire the entire stake of Bamburi Cement in what will mark one of the largest takeover deals in the East African region.

Amsons Group, which is a family-run business with operations in Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi said Wednesday it has signed a binding offer with Bamburi Cement. The deal could see Bamburi, one of Kenya’s iconic blue-chip companies, delisted from the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Amsons Group Managing Director Edha Nahdi said the proposed deal will deepen the group’s position in the cement sector in East Africa as part of the regional economic development and market integration ideals.

“We have great plans to deepen our investment in Kenya and in Bamburi,” said Mr Nahdi on the impending deal.

“Our offer to acquire shares in Bamburi is part of our corporate market expansion plan and will mark the formal entry of Amsons Group into the Kenyan market, where we plan to make investments in other industries in the coming months.”

The group issued the notice of intention to launch the public take-over offer through its Kenyan subsidiary and investment vehicle, Amsons Industries (K) Ltd, in a deal that will see Bamburi shareholders paid Ksh65 ($0.51) per share.

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At Ksh65 ($0.51)per share, Amsons’ cash offer represents a premium of Ksh20 ($0.16) per share or 44.4 percent gain, given that Bamburi share closed Wednesday trade at the NSE at Ksh45 ($0.35) a share.

Bamburi is majority-owned by Holcim through two investment vehicles—Fincem Holding Limited and Kencem Holding Limited—with a combined stake of 58.3 percent.

“This agreement to sell our stake in Bamburi Cement advances Holcim’s strategy of extending our leadership in our core markets as the global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions,” said Martin Kriegner, regional head of Asia, Middle East & Africa at Holcim.

Read: Bamburi Cement issues profit warning

Amsons Group was founded in 2006 in Tanzania and now has more than $1 billion in annual turnover. Its main business operations historically involved bulk oil and petroleum products importation under the Camel Oil Tanzania retail brand.

The group has, over time, grown its portfolio in the manufacturing sector with a 6,000 metric tonnes per day cement manufacturing capability, including through the recently acquired Mbeya Cement facility.

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