Tabora youths now eye business opportunities in E. Africa region

A NUMBER of youths around the country are involved in various productive activities, but they always find it hard to find business opportunities that will link them to the East African region.
But in Tabora municipality youths have begun responding positively to the challenge that implores them to rise up and exploit business opportunities found in the East African region, thanks to the Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) sensitization campaigns.
Among the beneficiaries of the non government organization FCS lessons includes Juma Mlanda, Halima Ally and Mariam Ibrahim who are currently in the process of registering their businesses with Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) to formalize their activities.
The three business people deals in processing honey, moringa leaves and seeds, coffee, growing and processing mushrooms, making mango peaco, and peanut plus a retailing shop.
Halima Ally says preparations were also underway to certify their products with Tanzania Foods and Drugs Authority (TFDA), and Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS).
They also include securing Barcode labels to enable people to identify proprietors of the products.
"The Seminar conducted by FCS has transformed us and we now aim higher by ensuring that we take our products to East African regional market," explains Halima.
However, Mlanda hinted that plans were underway to establish a special small-scale honey processing section, adding that they had plans to approach SIDO management for financial and technical assistance.
According to the upcoming entrepreneurs, future plans include securing their own beehives for beekeeping, instead of buying honey from beekeepers who have been registered with the Ministry of Natural Resources.
However, Ibrahim said the challenge ahead was that many youths in Tabora were quite unaware on the available EAC business and trade opportunities.
"We, as young people have said we should not give up; we should start with ourselves to show an example by improving our business. In so doing it will be easier to convince other youths to come out and share experience," says Ibrahim.
This has been made possible by the Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) through sensitising campaigns on the trade related issues.
A quick assessment carried out recently by the Foundation in the region has noted that beneficiaries of the training have begun improving their ways of doing business.
The aim of the FCS seminar held in Dar es salaam from October 21-25, 2016 and attended by youth representatives from all over the country was to enable young people to understand the importance of formalizing their businesses, a step that would also help them access East African market easily.
The youths attended the seminar through the invitation of Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce (TWCC) and another Non -Governmental Organization registered as KijaniKibichi.
According to Ms Ibrahim, they reached a decision to join forces with other members to have stronger voice in trade negotiation.
"When we join forces to become a strong group it is easier for us to access bank loan that will enable us raise enough capital for our business, because the serious challenge we face right now is how to raise capital," Ibrahim says.
Ibrahim said as part of improving their ways of doing business they have gone an extra step to employ a person who manages all activities as opposed to the past when everything came to a standstill and office closed when they travelled outside their area.

Read more

Monday, February 20, 2017 No Comments

Mbowe make the History to police station

This is so because things like cars are such scarce commodity that you only get to see one when some regional officials decide to visit your village probably rarely.

 People call you primitive and backward, but you take courage because in reality you are very informed of what goes on around the other parts of the country and the world from the radio.
So informed that you at the end of the day make it big in school and end up as with a PhD and land a job as a Director General of a public broadcasting Corporation, living long enough to tell the story.
Thanks to the power of the radio, one of the most affordable and reachable media outlet for the underprivileged, marginalized and what have you.
This narration is one of the many good things shared during the commemoration of the World Radio Day at a ceremony organized by UNESCO in Dar es Salaam recently. In there, was the TBC DG Dr. Ayoub Rioba to share his story over how as a young boy he had gone grazing with the radio with its listeners banking to it by 100 percent.

Read more

No Comments

Gambling fever grips Tanzania

GAMBLING on football has become a huge and growing industry in Tanzania worth billions of shillings per year, but there are now serious concerns over how the youth are getting addicted to sports betting with devastating consequences.
A survey by The Guardian on Sunday has revealed that sports betting shops are cropping up rapidly in all the country’s major urban centres as more and more Tanzanians, especially young males below the age of 30, get hooked to gambling.
Tanzania has a strong football fan base, making it a potentially huge market for sports betting. Gambling activities usually peak during weekends when popular football leagues around the world such as the English Premier League, Spain's La Liga and the German Bundesliga host soccer matches.
Driven by their love for foreign football leagues and high poverty and unemployment levels, thousands of youths across Tanzania are increasingly turning to gambling.
Some of the companies that offer sports betting services in Tanzania include PremierBet, Supabets, M-Bet, MkekaBet, William Hill and other firms.
A member of Parliament, Asha Abdullah Juma, warned the government in the recently-concluded parliamentary session that gambling addiction among youths has now become a national crisis.
The MP wanted to know what the government was doing to curtail the ongoing rapid proliferation of sports betting shops. She noted that gambling addiction was wrecking havoc in many families in the country, where parents are having to deal with increasingly anti-social behaviour of their children as a result of betting.
The lawmaker said the country's youths, mostly young men, were spending too much time in sports betting shops instead of engaging themselves in education or some productive activity.
However, Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning Dr Ashatu Kijaji defended sports betting shops, casinos and slot machines, saying they were licensed to operate in the country by the Gaming Board of Tanzania.
According to results of the national 2012 census, a staggering 80 per cent of Tanzania’s estimated population of 50 million is aged 35 years or below.
This means that given the massive popularity of European football leagues in the country, potentially millions of Tanzanians are at risk of becoming sports betting addicts. These favourable demographics have enticed dozens of international and local companies to open all manner of gambling businesses in the country targeting youths and middle class Tanzanians.
An addictive game
Some of the sports betting companies in Tanzania post photos at their establishments of youths who bet a few thousand shillings on football matches but ended up winning tens of millions of shillings.
They also do publicity campaigns in the local media whenever someone wins a big amount of money to entice more Tanzanians to start gambling. But what they don't say is that the incidents where lucky few punters win millions of shillings are actually few and far between.
But such rags-to-riches stories lure dozens of youths to spend their meagre income on sports betting. However, for every single punter who wins, thousands more across Tanzania lose the bets and their incomes.
Huruka Suleiman, a 30-year-old resident of Kijitonyama suburb in Dar es Salaam told The Guardian on Sunday that he has become addicted to sports betting along with many of his friends, forcing him to spend a major segment of his income on the game of chance of predicting the outcome of football matches.
“A friend of mine taught me how to do it. He once bet for European premier league matches and won a huge sum of money,” he said, adding:
“Since then the cash that my friend won has always tempted me to go to betting shops every week to try my luck.”
However, for Suleiman the gambling activity has left him with constant disappointment from one day to the next.
“I only win a few shillings once in a while, but I have lost so much money from gambling. I still continue to gamble even today because I know one day I will win big - just like my friend,” he said.
He said he was now spending up to three-quarters of his monthly income on gambling, especially during English Premier League football matches on weekends.
Suleiman admits that his sports gambling addiction has denied his family money for upkeep and development, saying he often quarrels with his wife over finances.
“My wife often inquires how I have spent my salary, because it hardly reaches mid-month due to the money I invest in sports betting,” he said.
The self-confessed sports addict cautions other youths like him to be very careful before they decide to involve themselves in gambling because it can ruin their lives and their future.
“Youths need to focus their minds on studies and development initiatives and not on gambling like I do,” he said, adding that without proper guidance gambling is very dangerous to their lives.
Another Dar es Salaam resident, John Makungwa, said he too spends thousands of shillings of his income each week on sports betting, but was yet to win any big amount of money.
Money spinner
Despite complaints that gambling addiction was potentially ruining the lives of many young Tanzanians, sports betting is said to be contributing about Sh1.6 billion each month to government coffers in terms of taxes.
Acting Director General of the Gaming Board of Tanzania James Mbalwe told the Guardian on Sunday that revenue collections from casinos, slot machines and sports betting have been booming, often times surpassing targets.
“Previously, at least 80 per cent of the total revenues from gaming would come from casinos, but it has since been overtaken by sports betting,” he said.
Mbalwe said gaming activities were contributing around Sh2 billion per month in revenue, adding that there were currently at least 13 registered sports betting operators in the country.
He said the registered firms have at least 231 registered sports betting centres across Tanzania, of which 178 operate in Dar es Salaam. This effectively makes Dar es Salaam the gambling capital of Tanzania.
“Sports betting is not only about income; it is used as a type of recreation as well,” he said while encouraging operators to open up more centres in rural areas.
Critics of gambling said sports betting and other games of chance had become like a sort of tax on Tanzanians, exacerbating their already difficult financial situations.
A lecturer from the Institute of Social Work in Dar es Salaam, MinaniNtahosanzwe, said gambling addiction can cause youths to lack creativity and innovation on how to improve their lives.
Ntahosanzwe said since the inception of sports betting activities in the city a few years ago, several youths have been reluctant to engage themselves in gainful activities on the hopes that they will one day get rich quickly through betting.
“Some young lads wrongly think that betting is the easiest way to get them quick cash. They do not want to earn their income the hard way through working,” he said.
He said betting activities were twisting the way of thinking in some youths, hence ruining both their education prospects and future ambitions in the long run.
The lecturer called for efforts from the society to educate youths and counsel them against the problem of gambling addiction.
“When a person loses money in sports betting, he or she suffers both economic and psychological torture, and this may negatively affect them in both their academic performance and general life,” he said.
Ntahosanzwe advised the government to closely regulate sports betting activities in the country, including ensuring that they do not open centres close to schools and universities and forbid underage people below 18 to play.
“The Gaming Board of Tanzania should relocate or shut down all sports betting centres operating in close proximity to residential neighbourhoods, univesities and schoolchildren for the greater interest of the public," he said.
Global phenomenon
Sports betting and other forms of gambling are becoming a phenomenon across Africa. Betting over which sports team might win has become a multimillion-dollar industry. By 2022, the global gambling market could be worth $635 billion, according to new findings by Dublin-based Research and Markets.
In Africa, countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are also witnessing a huge expansion in sports betting and other forms of gambling. Lotteries, poker, sport bets, slot machines, casino games and online gambling are the new trend. Many entrepreneurs and foreign companies are pocketing millions of shillings thanks to the gambling boom.
In neighbouring Kenya, SportPesa is taking gamblers by storm. Young Kenyan football lovers are betting heavily, leading to a boom in gambling across the nation. SportPesa, which was launched in 2013, boasts over one million registered users who can easily bet using their smartphones.
SportPesa requires individuals to register as a member, with their phone numbers as their user name. Members can then start placing bets on the team they think will win in a particular match, or predict a draw before the game starts.
Chezafutaa, Betway, Betin, Elitebet, Betyetu, Justbet, Easybet, Lucky to You and KenyaSportsBet are some of the companies that allow gamblers to use mobile phones and redeem their prizes through mobile money transfers.
Proponents of gambling argue that the industry comes with some benefits to the economy. Gambling activities serve as a recreational enjoyment to the majority of youths who also get safe places to pass time. The government earns revenue from the centres, and for those without a solid source of livelihood, the wins could also count as benefits for the participants.
Reports estimate that SportPesa earns at least 40 million euros (about Sh95 billion) in revenue. The same can be said of betting companies in Ghana, which rake in millions in revenue.
Gambling in some African countries has attracted Chinese businesspeople who run some of the centres.
An influx of Chinese goods in many African countries has allowed the entry of cheap internet-enabled mobile phones and slot machines. In Kenya, one can purchase a slot machine for as little as 100 euros directly from the manufacturers. Some of these cheap slot machines are situated in the slums or in middle class neighbourhoods.
Except for South Africa, which is a more established gambling market, betting laws in most other African countries are quite recent, and regulation is still poor.
A new GeoPollsurbey released last week revealed that gambling is becoming popular among male African millennials (those born after 1980) in sub-Saharan Africa due to their high affinity to sports and the proliferation of local sports betting centres.
"There are knowledge gaps among African millennials on areas such as effective saving plans, wise investments and financial management," said part of the GeoPoll report, adding:
"When asked, many would like to better understand asset financing, entrepreneurship and investment opportunities available in their respective countries. This is proof that young Africans are striving for financial independence, prosperity and belief in their own ability to charter their own course."

Read more

Sunday, February 19, 2017 No Comments

Manji in court for alleged heroin use, secures bail

Prominent Dar es Salaam business tycoon Yusuf Manji was yesterday arraigned before the Kisutu resident magistrate’s court to answer a charge of using illegal drugs contrary to section 17 (a) (1) of the Drug Control and Enforcement Act of 2015.

Prosecutors alleged before presiding resident magistrate Cyprian Mkeha that between February 6 and 9 this year, Manji used the heroin drug (diacefly-morphine) in the Upanga Sea View area of the city.
A team of three state attorneys, led by Shadrack Kimaro made their submission before the Kisutu Resident Magistrates Court.
The chairman of Quality Group Limited – one of the country’s leading business enterprises - pleaded not guilty. Defence lawyers Alex Mgongolwa, Hudson Ndusyepo and Jeremiah Mtobesya requested the court to grant him bail on the grounds that he is a public figure serving as Mbagala Kuu ward councilor, as well as a prominent businessman.
Magistrate Mkeha granted the bail request and Manji was released after meeting bail conditions which included one guarantor to sign a 10 million/- bond and another 10m/- bond signed by the accused himself, totaling 20m/-.
The guarantor bond was signed by Charles Boniface Mkwasa, secretary general of Dar Young Africans Sports Club, of which Manji is also chairman and chief financier. Mkwasa introduced himself as a resident of Dar es Salaam.
Magistrate Mkeha adjourned the case to March 16 this year when it comes up for mention.

Read more

Friday, February 17, 2017 No Comments

From my own experience, war on drugs no easy ride

CONSTITUTIONAL and Legal Affairs Minister Dr Harrison Mwakyembe has described the fifth phase government’s war against illegal drugs in the country as very tough, but says it must be won this time round.
This is in effect turning out to be Tanzania’s second real ‘war’ after the 1978–1979 confrontation with the Ugandan army troops under Idi Amin, Mwakyembe asserted yesterday during a live interview with East Africa Radio in Dar es Salaam.
Sharing his own experiences in tackling the national narcotics scourge as a cabinet minister in the previous (fourth phase) government, he noted that given the immense power and resources that drug barons wield, the anti-drugs war is definitely going to turn ugly.
For the current government to emerge victorious, all citizens of goodwill must stand behind it, he said.
Mwakyembe described how, during his stint as transport minister in the fourth phase administration of ex-president Jakaya Kikwete, he came face-to-face with the extent of the powers that drug traffickers yield.
He recalled specifically a 2013 incident in which a Tanzanian woman managed to smuggle more than 100 kilogrammes of a banned substance used to make methamphetamine drugs onto a flight to South Africa through the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in the city.
According to Mwakyembe, drug lords were most likely behind the security glitches that allowed the consignment to pass through all luggage checks at the airport.
“Curiously, CCTV cameras later revealed that sniffer dogs were very conveniently delayed to allow the consignment to pass through, and at the very minute it was going through the scanner, the person on duty was busy speaking on the phone,” he said.
The consignment was later impounded upon arrival at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mwakyembe said that particular incident happened even after security was supposedly tightened at JNIA following a formal International Police (Interpol) notification that the airport had become a virtual gateway for international drug trafficking.
But he applauded the government’s recent formation of a formal Drug Control and Enforcement Agency (DCEA) and appointment of seasoned security officer Rodgers Sianga as its commissioner general, saying this move has greatly enhanced chances of Tanzania eventually winning the anti-drugs war.
“We can’t afford to lose this war… we are going to defeat drug dealers the same way we defeated the people behind the murder of people with albinism,” the current justice minister insisted.
The new DCEA chief, Sianga, has said the agency’s first move will be to supply the Chief Justice the names of judges and magistrates believed to be undermining the anti-drugs war by mishandling cases that involve narcotics.
“We will show no mercy to anyone,” he said at a recent public event, pointing out that society at large is suffering from the effects of narcotics use and the high cost it is inflicting on individual users and their families.
The event saw Sianga receive a dossier containing a total of 97 new names of suspected drug barons and kingpins within and outside the country compiled by Dar es Salaam regional authorities.
Two other lists - of people suspected to be linked to the country’s narcotics trade, either as users, dealers or just contact persons – have already been made public in recent weeks.
The first contained some well-known local movie and music entertainers, while the second implicated a number of prominent local politicians, businessmen, and clerics.

Read more

No Comments

Tanzania moves to clear air over Mozambique ejections

RELATIONS between Tanzania and Mozambique will remain cordial and cooperative, the foreign ministry has asserted amid reports of Tanzanians living illegally in Mozambique being forcibly deported and,
in some cases, allegedly mistreated by local police officers in the process.
At least 132 Tanzanian nationals, most of whom were reportedly living without proper documentation in Mozambique’s northern Monte Puez district, Cabo Delgado province, have so far been sent home over the past few days as part of a major new Mozambican government crackdown on illegal immigrants in general.
According to a statement issued yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East Africa, Regional and International Cooperation in Dar es Salaam, the repatriation exercise being deployed by Mozambican authorities involves the arrest and subsequent ejection of all foreigners residing in the country illegally, regardless of original nationalities.
“The Mozambican government has admitted to have launched a special crackdown on illegal migrants only in Monte Puez, since that is where there is a larger number of foreigners compared to elsewhere in Mozambique. The operation targets those living without legal immigration credentials,” the ministry’s statement said.
It is estimated that there are over 3,000 Tanzanians living and engaging in various social-economic activities in Monte Puez. Since the current crackdown began, several of them have been deported in groups, beginning with the first batch of 58 Tanzanians last Sunday, 24 more on Tuesday, and 50 others just yesterday.
There have also been unconfirmed reports of some Tanzanians earmarked for deportation allegedly being systematically mistreated in a physical manner by Mozambican police officers, including lurid tales of women being beaten up and sometimes raped.
“They have closed all the borders and seized our travel documents,” Angel John, one of the affected Tanzanians, was quoted as lamenting while also calling for top Tanzanian government intervention in the matter.
But the ministry’s statement made a point of stressing that the repatriation exercise won’t be allowed to dent long-time bilateral ties between Tanzania and Mozambique, stretching back to the latter country’s pre-independence, freedom struggle years.
It noted that only last December, government representatives from both countries held a meeting specifically aimed at strengthening existing relations even further.
“During the meeting held in Pemba town, Cabo Delgado province, both government delegations identified new areas of cooperation which include improving mutual cross-border trade and immigration issues,” the ministry statement said.
According to the ministry, the Tanzanian consulate in Mozambique is closely following up on the repatriation exercise to ensure the safety of those being sent back to Tanzania, along with their properties.
Officials from the Tanzanian embassy in the capital Maputo have been dispatched to Monte Puez for the purpose, the statement said.
On a visit to Mozambique in 2015, then-president Jakaya Kikwete and his Mozambican counterpart Felipe Nyusi agreed to put in place stronger mechanisms to record cross-border trade volumes that were said to be huge but had previously remained unofficial.
Kikwete noted that a number of factors had contributed to the phenomenon of such enormous unofficial cross-border trade.

Read more

Thursday, February 16, 2017 No Comments

WB advises reducing global fishing in oceans

A new World Bank (WB) report has advised for reducing fishing in oceans to generate an additional USD 83 billion each year for the fisheries sector and creating a much-needed revenue stream in developing countries.
Fishing less is also likely to improve global food security as fish stocks are under pressure from pollution, coastal development, and the impacts of climate change.
The WB study shows that reducing the global fishing effort would allow fish stocks to recover from overexploitation and lead to increases in the weight, value and price of fish landed, boosting the profitability of the fisheries sector to USD 86 billion from an estimated USD 3 billion a year.
“This study confirms what we have seen in different countries. Giving the oceans a break pays off”, said Laura Tuck, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development.
Tuck said, “Moving towards more sustainable fisheries management, through approaches that are tailored to local conditions, can yield significant benefits for food security, poverty reduction and long-term growth”.
According to the report, the above mentioned moves would also lead to more fish being caught and landed, because stocks would have recovered to healthier levels, thus helping meet growing global demand for seafood and improving food security in many countries around the world.
The bio-economic model used in The Sunken Billions Revisited - developed by Ragnar Arnason, Professor in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Iceland - treats the world's marine fisheries as one large fishery.
It examines the mismatch between the increasingly high level of effort put into fishing and stagnant or even declining fish catches, and calculates the incremental benefits that could be derived from global fisheries reform.
The analysis reveals foregone economic benefits of about USD 83 billion in 2012, compared with what could be generated under the optimal scenario.
This result is not statistically different from the sunken billions estimated for 2004, which were revised from an estimated USD 50 billion in the 2009 study to USD 88 billion in The Sunken Billions Revisited based on improvements in the model, better data, and adjustment to 2012 dollars.
It said that reducing the global fishing effort would allow biological processes to reverse the long term decline in fish stocks in many parts of the world.
About 90 percent of marine fisheries monitored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are fully fished or overfished, up from about 75 percent in 2005.
The World Bank helps countries improve the management of their fisheries, invest in sustainable aquaculture and manage competing pressures on coasts and oceans to improve the livelihoods of coastal communities and put growth on a more sustainable and resilient footing.

Read more

No Comments