THE Chairman of the Tanzania Private Sector
Foundation (TPSF) Dr. Reginald Mengi has urged the government to think of involving
gold trade and other mineral gemstones in Commodity Exchange other than
agricultural commodities whose aim is to empower farmers in the country. Dr.
Mengi made the remark on Friday last week in Dar es Salaam while addressing
stakeholder’s consultations session on the establishment of a commodity
exchange for Tanzania, participants in the session included mainly investors of
the agricultural commodities such as cashew nuts, rice, sunflowers. A half day workshop
under the theme titled “Private sector
role in development” discussed ways on how private sector could benefit
through commodity exchange programme while the government is currently
preparing a legislation and a policy that would guide the operation. The
programme which has been introduced by the government aims to ensure together
with other things better quality of agricultural commodities sold in market, fair
selling price rates, commodity standards and their grades as well as free
market opportunities. In his speech, Dr.Mengi stressed the
importance of trading gold and other mineral gemstones as these are also among
the commodities which should not be left behind for private sector development in
the country. Earlier, he highlighted some challenges facing the agricultural
sector and the most daunting factor is cost of transportation for a number of
bulky agricultural produce which is recorded as constituting up to 40 percent
of total cost. He also noted that, access to finance that is a key for
efficiency along the entire agricultural value chains is particularly
problematic at the marketing level in the country. In spite of all these, he has however appreciated the government for
the initiatives it has taken to overcome the impending situation.
Elaborating
more on commodity exchange for Tanzania, Dr. Mengi noted that, this is a
development programme that could play in the transformation of agricultural
trade and is a c entre piece in the process of the agricultural sector
transformation. On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Capital Markets
and Securities Authority (CMSA) Ms. Masama Massinda whose organization is
spearheading the programme on behalf of private sector in the country said
there are a number of benefits the sector would benefit once the programme
starts. She said in an exclusive interview during the workshop that, creation
of jobs and better commodity price rates are among the elements that the sector
should expect to get, others she note4d are farmers in the country would access
of different varieties of commodities in the market. She further noted other
benefits are the presence of large volumes of commodities in the market, in
this aspect she elaborated that, there will be a transparency on commodity
selling whereby most commodities would be fetched at a cheapest price rates. She
also noted that, there would be no cheating of price as everything would be made open and the information would be scattered
at all centres which would be selected as main points throughout the country.Quoting
on the issue, a consultant on agricultural commodity price control Bede Lyimo
has highlighted the importance of the programme and noted that, the market will
be dominated with fair price rates as these are important mostly for farmers in
the country. Lyimo who has been tasked by the government as a consultant to
help private stakeholders in agricultural commodities and direct them in
whatever ways possible. He noted that, in order to facilitate the move, the
private sector needs to establish warehouses.
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