Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:
Tanzanian tycoon Mohamed Dewji has challenged African policies which, he said, have gaps that need to be filled to support large scale investments in agriculture as he eyes to expand his agribusiness ventures with a $200 million investment.
Mr Dewji, who was recently named one of Africa’s richest people, said Africa misses right policies to unlock the potential of the sector.
“Why are we still importing food while we have 40 percent of the arable land in the world and we have the young population? All we need is a little bit of technology and capital,” he told CNN in an interview.
The chief executive of Mohamed Enterprises Tanzania Limited (MeTL) Group fondly known as Mo, was recently ranked by Forbes as the 13th wealthiest individual in Africa and the 1,913th globally with a fortune of $1.5 billion. In last year’s list, Mo was ranked 15th.
MeTL Group is active in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages and edible oils.
He explained that he wants to improve his focus on grain crops such as wheat and corn, and then the edibles like sunflowers, soybeans and palm.
“When you are talking about an economy that is $70 billion, and if you are doing $2.5 billion of revenue, you cannot be in only one line of business. I am over 150 lines of businesses,” he said.
When asked about his bestselling product, he revealed that it will be his carbonated soft drink ‘Mo-Extra’ of which he sells nearly one billion bottles annually.
“We plan to set up factories in areas where Coca-Cola and Pepsi are setting up across Tanzania, and I hope to reach 3.5 billion bottles in the next 24 to 36 months,” he said.
MeTL has a presence in other African countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, DR Congo.a
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Tanzania Declares End of Marburg Virus Disease Outbreak
Tanzania today declared the end of Marburg virus disease outbreak after recording no new cases over 42 days since the death of the last confirmed case on 28 January 2025.
The outbreak, in which two confirmed and eight probable cases were recorded (all deceased), was the second the country has experienced. Both this outbreak, which was declared on 20 January 2025, and the one in 2023 occurred in the north-eastern Kagera region.
In response to the latest outbreak, Tanzania’s health authorities set up coordination and response systems, with support from World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, at the national and regional levels and reinforced control measures to swiftly detect cases, enhance clinical care, infection prevention as well as strengthen collaboration with communities to raise awareness and help curb further spread of the virus.
Growing expertise in public health emergency response in the African region has been crucial in mounting effective outbreak control measures. Drawing on experience from the response to the 2023 Marburg virus disease outbreak, WHO worked closely with Tanzanian health authorities to rapidly scale up key measures such as disease surveillance and trained more than 1000 frontline health workers in contact tracing, clinical care and public health risk communication. The Organization also delivered over five tonnes of essential medical supplies and equipment.
“The dedication of frontline health workers and the efforts of the national authorities and our partners have paid off,” said Dr Charles Sagoe-Moses, WHO Representative in Tanzania. “While the outbreak has been declared over, we remain vigilant to respond swiftly if any cases are detected and are supporting ongoing efforts to provide psychosocial care to families affected by the outbreak.”
Building on the momentum during the acute phase of the outbreak response, measures have been put in place to reinforce the capacity of local health facilities to respond to potential future outbreaks. WHO and partners are procuring additional laboratory supplies and other equipment for disease detection and surveillance and other critical services.
Marburg virus disease is highly virulent and causes haemorrhagic fever. It belongs to the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease. Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly. Patients present with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise. They may develop severe haemorrhagic symptoms within seven days.
In the African region, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
Source: allafrica.com
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