Members of CEO
Roundtable (CEOrt) of Tanzania have expressed their grave concern over major
challenges facing Tanzania in the key economic sectors which are critical for
national development. They said the persisting challenges are largely caused due
to lack of commitment and seriousness by some top most national executives who
are not innovative enough to ensure high productivity in various sectors they
stand for. The CEOrt members made the observation in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday
night this week during the first members’ monthly dinner meeting of the year
2015 which was held at Hyatt Regency Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar es Salaam. CEO
Chairman Ali Mufuruki who is also founder of Infotech Investment Group on
Tanzania said that, the challenges are many and alarming such as low education
levels, lack of access to reliable energy and powering industries, inefficient
transport and logistics infrastructure to encourage trade. Others he mentioned
are inadequate technological advancements for maximizing agricultural
production, and most importantly the depletion of country’s cast most precious
resources at the hands of corrupt senior officials. The meeting had a
discussion under the theme, “Africa is
not rising, Africans are not changing”, whose focus highlighted ideas which
ironically looked at whether Africa continent is rising and making progresses
in terms of social and economic development. According to Mufuruki, citizens of
most African countries including Tanzania are faced with a myriad of social and
economic problems due to a number of reasons, the basic one is incompetence
caused as a result of poor leadership codes which is full of corruption. “The
sabotage of African economies by Africans is on the rise, be it through direct
theft, corruption or the wars that never seen to end”, he said adding that the
capacity to destroy treasures and manpower is growing faster than the capacity
to build them.
CEO
Chairman Ali Mufuruki
He noted that, in order
to remedy the situation, the private sector need to be empowered by governments
in order to ward off unemployment problems facing young graduates who are
increasing year after year in most countries across Africa. In the case of
Tanzania he noted that, there cannot be progresses made despite the fact that
the country boasts of gradual economic growth, if the issue of unemployment is
not solved. He said although Tanzania has made a great stride for the economic
growth rate which currently stands at 6 percent, this is not enough to cater
for the need of citizens and however, he presumed that, this rate should have
been doubled at a much faster pace by end of 2025. He suggested that, private
sectors have to help challenge the problem to curb with the increased
unemployment rate and the government help fight corruption which continues to
haunt the lives of most poor Tanzanians. On his part a representative of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to the meeting, Abdalah Said Shah said that, Tanzania cannot
develop if the top executives are wrecking own economy through corruption,
theft and other forms of sabotage. Shah is dismayed by the conduct of some
executives saying that Tanzania and Africa in general cannot rise if the
environment and biodiversity that sustains life are dying in own hands. He is on the view of the fact that, people
need to work with trust in order to protect own wealth for the betterment of the
citizens and the nation at large. Founded in 2000, the CEOst is a policy
dialogue forum with the main objective of creation a platform through which
captains of industry can constructively engage the government with the vision
of creating a more conducive environment for businesses to prosper and
contribute to Tanzania’s economic growth. The forum brings together over 100
organizations doing business in Tanzania which lead account for more than 40
percent of the tax revenue collected by the government.
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