Slaughtering threatened as blood, water forms dirty ponds

The persistence of torrential rains and inability by city authorities to maintain hygienic standards at the Mazizini and Vingunguti abattoirs on the south western tip of the city threatens to make it hard to obtain meat or make it more expensive. Stanley Ngosi, the chairman of Uwema, an association of abattoir users at the place, said large amounts of dung remained uncollected as their demand from customers had diminished, with people doing fewer preparations of farms during the heavy rains period. In addition to worn out infrastructures, water logging was building up in the slaughtering area at Mazizini, adding to the inconvenience due to uncollected piles of cow dung.  This has resulted into spreading of mud, inconveniencing access to the compound, this reporter noticed. Were the situation to persist, operators of abattoirs face the risk of having to suspend business operation of slaughtering cattle in the area as the place would look too unhygienic, which risks causing sporadic diseases. A random survey conceded in the city this week has  reveal that due to poorly constructed infrastructures for drainage systems and old disposal facilities for refuse in these areas, they cannot withstand the persistent downpour thus posing a threat to the slaughtering process. A survey carried out at Mazizini abattoir which is located at Ukonga and another at Vingunguti showed that the facilities are in urgent need of revamping and modernisation. Slaughterhouse facilities had been overwhelmed by too much rainwater, blocking drainage trenches, thus making slaughter blood and water remain in pools, an unacceptable situation, the Uwema leader said.   

Skinners at work on the ground, this is contrary to principles of sanitation
 

He said that he was aware of plans for improvement but replacement of the facilities needs time and money, “thus it cannot be implemented at this time when rains are still going on.” The number of slaughtered cattle has increased tenfold since the abattoirs were built, pushing its use even in more convenience weather situation to its seams, and nearly breaking down when heavy rains start. Built in 1972, Mazizini was designed to accommodate 50 cattle but now it handles about 320 cattle, he said.When is not raining the cow dung become is sold for manure. Abattoir operators say that in recent years, the facility has regularly faced closure due to filthy surroundings, operating well beyond the capacity of its infrastructure. The situation has brought some meat traders in Dar es Salaam to demand the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) to fulfill its long standing promise of constructing a modern abattoir. Some interviewed meat traders said that they are surprised to see no sign of construction is being undertaken ever since the promise was made by the city authorities over a decade ago and instead continues to slaughter their cows in dilapidated abattoirs. Samwel Chilongolo a Dodoma based resident and a Dar meat trader said that drainage systems when fully being used affects individual houses around the place.  Expansion is needed in infrastructural upgrades especially as the city population increases, as well as meat demand, he said. Another meat trader Ezekiel Samson wondered why 40 years since the abattoir was built the city has only dilapidated abattoirs. Efforts to contact the Ilala Municipal Council director Mwendahasara Maganga for comments proved futile, but an official said that the council is now looking for a strategic investor who would build the abattoir as the municipal council is no longer able to afford the costs of a modern abattoir.

Sumaye: Help African countries to build own economy through investments

Former Prime Minister, Frederick Sumaye has called upon global development partners to take a close look on how to help African countries improve its economy by investing in its rich natural resources. It has been learnt. Sumaye made the plea yesterday in his key note address at the 10^th Annual International Development Conference held at Harvard Kennedy School-Harvard University in USA, the school where he had studied his Masters Degree six years ago. The Conference discussed issues under the theme titled, “The Wrong Way? Forging New Paths for development”, focussed various ways on how some continents especially Africa missed targets in its development schedules and how the poorest suffers in global economy. In his speech a copy of which has been made available to the Guardian on Sunday, Sumaye has described how Africa lost its development targets from the time of its scramble when the Berlin agreement of partitioning the region came into being in 1884. In view of this, Sumaye has called upon the international development partners to stand firm to help the continent regain its prosperity by investing on its natural resources. He noted that, Africa started to lose its control of economny during the during the cold war when the major political blocks, the capitalist and communist blocks, each was trying to get as many as possible of newly independent states of Africa on each ones side.  This culminated into many countries acquiring an economic and security dependence on the respective block, but in some cases countries ended up in complete civil strives that took decades to settle with huge costs to the economy and human lives.  Another cause of the continent’s economic backwardness is the scramble for its natural resources which can turn into a curse or an economic boom depending on the ability of African leadership to handle it to the benefit of their countries and people.  “Naturally people scramble because there is something substantial for them to gain”,  he said adding that, all these scrambles for Africa resulted into total exploitation of Africa or derailed African countries from their normal course of development and in some cases plunged countries into total chaos and civil wars.  Most of these scrambles are now history to many countries in Africa and there are many positive trends of development.  The economies of many countries are growing at encouraging rates of above the world average rate. But poverty is still persistent in literally all the countries of Africa due to various factors that need to be overcome, some urgently, some overtime. 

Former Tanzania Prime Minister, Frederick Sumaye.

Giving an example in Tanzania, a fairly vast country in East Africa with a population of about 45 million inhabitants the major exports comprise of agricultural commodities like coffee, cashew nuts, cotton, tea and tobacco. Others are flowers etc and minerals including gold, diamonds, uranium, bauxite and precious gemstones like Tanzanite including a large wildlife tourist potential unparalleled anywhere on the continent and probably on the planet. Despite having all these huge potential but the country is poor and its people are also poor and this is not unique to Tanzania alone but rather a case of Africa region. He queried whether Africa might have gone wrong or the right way, and it has to look into these components individually or in related groupings.  “We will probably find that in some cases we are on the right track while in others we are on the wrong path and we need to turn back or realign our direction to get us on the right track of sustainable development” he said. There is also a realization that a lot of our most serious problems confronting African countries are there because those touched most by such problems are left out in the process of dealing with the problems. However, sumaye has noted down some of the most key components of development for which Africa has to look at critically. These are among others the Economic development and wealth creation, the disparity between men and women. In the case of Africa for instance, Sumaye noted that women are traditionally Bread makers of the family they are the producers of food and income generators for the family. They do about 70 – 80 percent of the work load. Furthermore, they look after the children, do all the domestic chores of fetching water, collecting firewood cooking etc and do the back breaking activities using inefficient traditional work tools. Another is unfair International Trade regime in the sense that, the developing countries do not effectively make money to increase wealth into their countries due to two reasons; one, these countries’ products cannot effectively compete in the world markets due to various reasons including quality and quantities of their products; and two, due to unfair trading patterns.  These include illegal trade barriers and other protectionist policies favouring their local and home made products. The industries in developing countries are far less developed and most of times using outdated technologies that are inefficient and not cost effective making the products so produced to be uncompetitive and expensive. Another is the political stability and security, this is a very necessary ingredients for any successful development to take place. This is not a serious problem now in Africa compared to the past although there are still some countries where peace is farfetched.  These trouble spots are not many but still cause a lot of concern to the African Union and to other countries particularly those who are neighbours. Lastly Sumaye mentioned Technological advancement, noting that is impacting every human activity and is producing unprecedented outcomes. Advances in technology are now important components in running of governments, businesses and other human activities.

Samsum brand commodities gets dealers in Tanzania

Electronic products sold under the brand name known as SAMSUNG will now be supplied in Tanzania market by a locally registered Business Machine Company Ltd known by its acronym BMTL. It has been learnt. This is after the company has become part of the Copy Cat group, a regional leader in office automation and IT solutions. The group being the main suppliers of the brand in five African countries has been appointed by Samsung which is among the best known brand names in the world. Announcing this new relationship in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BMTL, Mike Holtham said that, his firm has entered into a business partnership with a view to increase technology and expand its market in the country. He also noted that, in few months to come BMTL would change its name to Copy Cat Tanzania Ltd in order to benefit more in terms of size, capabilities and expertise. Copy Cat group has been a primary partner in East Africa for Samsung technology leading the State-of-the-Art range of imaging and display solutions. The Copy Cat Ltd. was established in 1984 as a leading fully integrated Office Automation outfit selling products including but not limited to Copy Printers, Fax Machines and Shredders. The regional offices include The Copy Cat Uganda, Business Machines Tanzania Limited (BMTL) Tanzania and The Copy Cat Ethiopia and Kenya. Incorporated in 1960, a year before Tanzania’s independence, BMTL has grown from a supplier of simple office equipment such as a typewrites and duplicating machines to the nation’s premier provider of office automation and information technology solutions. For over 25years, The Copy Cat’s single-minded approach has been to provide I.C.T and Business technology Solutions for customers. The company’s philosophy is to provide excellent professional services and detailed attention to the requirements of our customers.

Budget constraints hinders national service programmes

INSUFFICIENT budget allocation has been cited to be hindering the progress of the government’s introduced prograamme for the compulsory national service military trainings. The trainings targeted for form six school leavers as well as graduates from colleges in the country which were suspended by the government in 1994, were revived by Parliament in March 2013 with the first intake had its duration reduced to 3 months instead of 12 months as it was before 20 years ago. Speaking in an exclusive interview last week at National Service Headquarters in Dar es Salaam, head of National Service Major General Raphael Muhuga said that, the available fund for training is not enough to accommodate intake of 20,000 registered school leavers at once. He said the national service has two major programmes of training people most of whom youths who have completed national form six under compulsory programme, and another training which lasts for 2 years for those who volunteers. Youths who are volunteering are ex-form four candidates and standard seven school, leavers who have to undergo a six month basic military training and 18 months for trainings of hands skills on activities such as livestock keeping, fishing, carpentry, masonry computer training and many others. He said that, about 99.9 percent of youths in the country have responded positively to join national service programmes but another problem comes on how to accommodate them in the few integrated available national camps in the country. However, he expressed the need of having enough money to cater for the social facilities and other things at the camps, but due to budget constraint are ought to register the number of school leavers according to the availability of the fund from the government.

Head of the National Service Major General Raphael Muhuga 

According to him, the cost of training each intake consisting of 20,000 youths is about Sh. 32 billion for three months as stipulated by the law.  He said adding that, in a year they have two running intakes under compulsory scheme programme which are being undertaken by rotation and these have been divided in such away that they are not interfered with the admission time for higher learning scholars. Elaborating more about the intake, he said another intake now is scheduled to be effective in June and runs through up to September 2014. He said on completion of the training, selected candidates would have time to join higher learning institutions as usual. He said the challenge they face mostly is whenever they embark on the second intake which he said they don’t receive enough youths as expected for most of them are already admitted in higher learning institutions  In order to supplement the shortage, the National Service boss noted that, his institution has contacted the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to arrange for them graduates from various vocational training colleges to fill the gap. The National Service boss was contacted with a view to get to know the current development status and the way forward following the reinstatement of the programme by the government a year ago. In another development, Major General Muhuga said that, the national service is planning to establish an assembly plant to enhance its tractor’s business as part of promoting ‘Kilimo Kwanza Initiative’. He said that, the institution has started formal negotiation with the outside dealers from China and Korea whose commodities will be checked by Arusha based Carmatec Company. In the meantime, the national service is continuing selling its 268 tractors it had import4ed from India. Highlighting about the development of SUMA Guard project, He said it has spread its wings to 20 regions in the country. The project has earns the institution about Sh. 6 billion per year.

How REPOA’s research activities can help entrepreneurs

On Wednesday last week, an independent research institution which creates and utilizes knowledge to facilitate socio-economic development in Tanzania known by its acronym, ‘REPOA’ organized its 19^th Annual Research Workshop (ARW). A two day event under the theme titled, ‘Transformation, Job creation and Poverty eradication, Enterprise Development for more inclusive growth’ was graced by President Jakaya Kikwete at Bahari Beach Hotel on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam city. Other dignitaries who attended the meeting were some invited Regional Commissioners (RCs), District Commissioners (DCs), Honorable Ministers, Heads of some Diplomatic missions accredited in the country and economic researchers. In his speech President Kikwete reassured Tanzanians that his government will finalise the gas and oil policies which currently is in final touches by October this year so as to pave the way for inclusive growth investment. He said that there has been an extensive discussion with the private stakeholders on how to use  oil and gas resources and noted that, the challenge facing the country is how to link these resources with the aspirations of the Development Vision 2025 and the socio-economic transformation. “The strategies and policies are meant to ensure that our people participate productively in the utilization of natural resources we are blessed with” he said adding that he would make sure this is effectively implemented before his retirement next year. He underscored that the importance of oil and gas sector and that it should be given a priority it deserve as a subsector, given the volume of the resources, the intensity of capital investments, and flow of revenues expected from their commercialization.  According to REPOA’s Executive Director Professor Samuel Wangwe, a two day meeting had the main objectives that discussed ways and look at the possibility on how small scale farmers including entrepreneurs in the country could increase their daily incomes for their survival. It is from this point of view he noted that, the core business of REPOA which stands for Report on Poverty Alleviation relies with a view to improving the quality of life of the entire people of Tanzania. The presentations in this workshop were structured around for reviews basing on the availability of employment opportunities that addressed how to tackle poverty stricken situation in Tanzania. They have also highlighted challenges and risks of achieving high growth which is not accompanied with the requisite transformation of the economy and widespread job creation. This signifies that Tanzania is still faced with a challenge of low productivity and low returns to labour in agriculture and others such as micro and small enterprises are predominantly in the informal economy where the majority of Tanzanians are deriving their livelihoods. In his introductory speech Prof. Wangwe noted that, the low returns to labour in agriculture push people out of agriculture in search of alternative sources of employment but most of these migrating labour end up in the lowest end of the non-farm sectors mainly trade, other services and a few in manufacturing activities.  He said, the resulting kind of urbanization where the informal economic activities provide low returns to labour carries with the risk of turning rural poverty into urban poverty. Elaborating on the main objective of the stakeholders’ annual gathering he said that, is to achieve deeper understanding of the dynamics of micro and small scale economic activities and identify options for managing the enterprise transformation process with a view to realizing more inclusive growth. During a two day meeting, various presentations from experts and distinguished scholars from Tanzania and other countries were selected strategically for the sharing of experiences of the enterprise transformation for inclusive growth.

President Jakaya Kikwete in a teete-with REPOA's Executive Director Professor Samuel Wangwe during the 19th Annual Research Workshop (ARW).


Apart from Tanzania, the workshop also drew some of the key speakers from Japan, USA. Bangladesh, Netherlands and Switzerland. Over 20 presentations during these two days of the workshop covered a wide range of topics in the theme of the workshop. Contributing his ideas over the topic, a Japanese Professor of Development Economics Keijiro Otsuka said in its paper titled ‘Cluster based Industrial Development: KAIZEN management for MSE growth’ that, in order to reduce widespread poverty and achieve inclusive growth in developing countries, it is essential to create jobs by promoting industrial development. He said, there is no clear cut as this is an effective strategy to create employment in developing countries, adding that there is a large number of case studies related to the development of industrial clusters. He said the effectiveness of this is based on the results of six KAIZEN management training experiments conducted primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa region Tanzania included. Professor Otsuka argues in his paper that, efficient management is the key to the innovation, which in turn is a major engine of firm and industrial growth, adding that management training molt only enhances management capacity of entrepreneurs but also serves as an effective screening device to identify promising and non-promising entrepreneurs. KAIZEN programme is a kind of entrepreneurship training for inclusive industrial development which is being used to a larger extent by Japanese government for its people. The programme which in recent years was introduced in Tanzania by Japanese government through its International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is being run in collaboration with the ministry of Trade and Industry since 2008. Its main objectives are to make jobs more effective for entrepreneurs in Tanzania Dr. Shenggen Fan, the Director General of the US based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said that stallholder farmers are an important participant in the economic transformation  of developing countries amid increasing demographic, climatic, economic and natural resource pressures. He said in his paper titled, ‘From subsistence to profit: Transforming stallholder farms’ that, not all stallholders are the same adding that they face diverse opportunities and challenges and live in different types of economies. He  further argues that, while some smallholders have the potential to undertake profitable commercial activities in agriculture, others should be supported in exiting agriculture and seeking nonfarm opportunities (both rural and urban), adding that policies must also be adapted to reflect the country’s stage of transformation. Dr. Christopher Awinia of Praxis Tanzania Ltd who is experienced in policy analysis and development planning argues in his paper presentation that, there have been increasing trends of rural to urban youth migration without corresponding job creation in Tanzania. He said in his paper titled, ‘Structural barriers, constraints and urban youth employment: The case of Ilala Municipality’ that, the trends have been responsible for creation of low labour productivity informal urban enterprises. He said, the trend has further contributed to long term urban youth unemployment and increased absolute number of unemployed urban youth, adding that as a result youth in urban areas have not benefitted from growth mainly because of lack of access to services that contribute to their productive capabilities. Professor David Nyange, a Tanzanian national and agricultural economist with over 20 years experience in academic and development work s aid in his paper presentation that, Africa is economies are transforming rapidly with GDP projected to grow at 6 percent this year compared with 3.2 percent globally, and that Tanzania economy is projected to grow mush higher. In his paper titled, ‘Opportunities and challenges for Tanzania’s agriculture in contributing to economic transformation and job creation’ he noted that, despite impressive macro economic performance, poverty, food and nutrition security have remained elusive. He further argues that, one third of Tanzania’s population still lives below the national poverty line and 38 percent of under 5 years children are stunted. He further noted that since 75 percent of Tanzanians are employed in agriculture, it is therefore imperative that the agricultural sector holds the key to eradication of poverty and hunger and promoting broad based growth through jobs creation.