The Ministry of agriculture attracted as many show goers than expected

The Ministry of agriculture and cooperatives was the most fascinating stall, which attracted most show goers. You can see the artificial exotic chicken breeds which were brought at the show ground. One would think these are real chicken by looking at them from far a distance.

Prime Minister’s office shines at Mnazi Mmoja show ground

A man looks at the photos of the preceding Prime Ministers of Tanzania who were displayed at the entrance to the exhibition ground organized by the Prime Ministers’ office in commemoration of the 50th anniversary cerebrations of the Tanzania’s independence at Mnazi Mmoja show ground a fortnight ago. The climax of this national cerebration would be marked on 9th December 2011 at Mwalimu Nyerere ground or Sabasaba ground.

Lack of spaces, who is to blame?

This scene is at the junction road of Kitunda and that one of Banana-Ukonga. It’s very absurd to note that, an open space reserved for pedestrians has been turned to be a parking site for motor-cycles popularly known as Bodaboda who do not pay even a road license. Despite of their presence, no one bothers their presence even the traffic police never take any action to control them.

Police verses daladala drivers in Dar es Salaam is always a shame

A traffic policeman who seemed to be desperate with the daladala driver at Gongo la Mboto bus stop, instructing a driver of this daladala who seemed to have violated traffic rule while speeding on the road. It’s very hectic in the morning during pick hours as most daladala drivers rush here and there without caring for the pedestrians. The above daladala driver who was forced to disembark had to face the law in court later in the evening when he was found to have committed several mistakes on the road.

How Mwanza is becoming a nice city

This is how the city of Mwanza is decorated near the NMB Bank at a round about. The place has become one of the most attracting spot for having been placed with a Nile perch statue, a common marine creature in lake Victoria.

This is how government officials forces bribes, aren’t they ashamed?

It was high time when officials from Singida Town Council who with the car which they had packed in front of the Mwanza bound Zuberi Bus with intention to block it from proceeding on with the journey when passengers on board disembarked and started exchanging abusive words. The officials claimed that the driver of the bus had refused to stop at Singida bus stop and as a council rule, he had to pay a fine of Tshs. 300,000/- cash for his disobedience or else go to police. When passengers heard of this they became furious and were about to exchange blows with the officials who after much discussions they decided to leave the bus and continued with its safari. I was among the passengers on board and the incident occurred in May this year.

Hotels constructed along the main roads offers high price foods

This is one of the finest hotels and a rest house which has been constructed near Gairo along Morogoro-Dodoma main road. Such hotels offers food and accommodation to would be passengers traveling along the road. But according to one traveler their costs are higher than normal. In January this year, the Assistant Minister for Transport Mr. Athuman Mfutakamba promised up-country travelers all over the country that, his ministry would try with everything possible to make sure that, they build rest houses for travelers along the main roads to relieve them of the great burden of the problem of helping themselves while on safari instead of going into the bushes, a thing commonly known as “Kuchimba Dawa” in Swahili language.

When Daladala messes up

A daladala which plies between Gongo La Mboto and Pasta recently got stuck at Gongo la Mboto and without help, the owner had to hire a break down for help. This mini bus went into the interior of the uswahilini area to pick people who had hired it for a wedding ceremony.

Dar becomes a notorious city in haphazard construction

Haphazard construction of residential buildings is increasing in the city of Dar es Salaam and on the outskirts of it as you can see the situation in this photo taken from Tandika Yombo recently. Despite of these developments and efforts shown by Temeke municipal council to control such unplanned settlements from developing, critics says that such areas will slowly develop into a slum settlements whereby the provision of social services and important infrastructures would becomes rather difficult in future.

Empowering local citizens through ICT knowledge

EFFORTS to bridge the digital divide by promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) tools to the people particularly in peri-urban and rural communities in Tanzania has led to the emergence of knowledge sharing among the local citizens. Following the liberalization of ICT sector in the country, issues of internet access as a tool for knowledge building has been adapted to a greater extent by various ICT stakeholders in order to meet the need of the so-called the information poor. In view of this, ICT investment is progressively taking place in Tanzania and this is indeed a paradigm shift in knowledge transfer. It means Tanzania is booming as an active partner in ICT use and internet has played a most crucial role in bridging the knowledge gap between societies at a considerable rate. his shows that, the potential of ICT application and its investment if well utilized is going to transform education and reduce ignorance, poverty and diseases in the country. In order to fight against these three development impediments, the process actually needs a joint concerted efforts of all stakeholders. The establishments of Tele-Centres which are the alternative source for rural e-learning is essential for ICT investments as these provides related services such as ICT training, consultancy services, distance learning, and business trainings. This is quite distinct from such an ICT centre like an internet café which is purely a commercial entity providing access to long distant communication and information services using a variety of technologies including phones, fax, computers and surfing. In rural communities, mobile internet is the most appropriate to a larger audience that helps such communities to benefit from the ICT revolution by accessing information that is of specific relevance to the daily lives of the people for their overall development process. The philosophy behind the Tele-centres concept initiatives is to provide affordability to rural communities and ICT projects for good governance and inspires collaborative participatory private public community partnerships.

CMSA seeks for nominated advisors to stand for its equity market

CAPITAL Markets and Securities Authorities (CMSA) is looking for strategic advisors and their representatives in order to operationalize its Enterprise Growth Market (EGM) segment of the stock exchange. EGM is a recently established equity market by CMSA which is intended specifically for the development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country. A statement issued by CMSA says that, prospective advisors would be companies licensed by CMSA to undertake responsibility of nurturing and assisting an issuer for a public offer of securities and advising issuer listed on the EGM segment of stock exchange EGM which will later be launched by Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) once advisors are obtained will help small and medium enterprises that cannot access capital markets and also would help them obtain the needed capital for their expansions. The establishment of EGM comes about as a result of the recent study carried out by CMSA on the market structure most appropriate for the country. The study identified the need to change the existing structure to cope with the requirements of the economy as well as to facilitate the implementation of national policies aimed at economically empowering Tanzanians. Such policies includes policy on encouraging SME to grow, the National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA), the Properties Business Formalization Program (PBFP-MKURABITA) and the Zanzibar Economic Growth Program (ZEGP-MKUZA).The implementation of the above mentioned policies, require a market segment which will cater for the needs of a section of the economy that up to now has not been able to tap into capital market, says CMSA spokesperson Mr. Charles Shirima. EGM will support the implementation of the above policies by creating entry to capital markets for entities which up to now have not had access to this opportunity. It is an envisaged as a new equity market segment that will exist in conjunction to, and complement the existing Main Investments Market Segment (MIMS) at DSE. With the liberalization of the Tanzanian economy, entrepreneurship is growing more and more and as a result the number of SMEs has been increasing and is expected to increase further. Coupled by this gradual growth, SMEs needs support. However, both the government‘s policy and strategic studies and capital markets studies have unequivocally shown that access to capital has been a key hindrance to the development of entrepreneurship and growth of SMEs. Creating an environment that is conducive to the growth and development of entrepreneurship and SMEs, is a key objective and an integral part of the government’s MKUKUTA program initiatives.