Group to ease acquisition of building permits

Tanzania Private Sector Foundation executive director Godfrey Simbeye (left) speaks yesterday in Dar es Salaam. With him is TPSF analyst Adam Gahhu. Photo/ The Citizen Correspondent PHOTO|CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT 

By The Citizen Reporter  

In Summary

Construction permits are among areas that should be dealt with if the country want to prosper,” he said, adding that the private sector has a big role in that process.

Dar es Salaam. Solutions to problems facing people to obtain construction permits on time got momentum after the establishment of a private sector-led Working Group on Construction Permits.

The initiative undertaken by Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) seeks to make it easier for both local, foreign investors and individuals to get construction permits when in need to undertake various projects in the country.

TPSF executive director Godfrey Simbeye said during the formation of the team in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the Working Group also seeks to implement and support the Government Roadmap on Improvement of the Investment Climate in Tanzania which is an expansive programme encompassing business related regulatory regime reforms across the country.

“Construction permits are among areas that should be dealt with if the country want to prosper,” he said, adding that the private sector has a big role in that process.

Mr Simbeye said that the Working Group will thoroughly seek ways to improve issuing of construction permits in Tanzania and present recommendations to the government.

“To achieve their objectives, the team will be meeting with various stakeholders from both the public and private sectors,” he said.

Construction permits is one the things outlined by various global reports as having negative impact on the business climate in Tanzania due to a very rigorous and unnecessary processes in obtaining them.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 report records the procedures, time and cost for a business to obtain all the necessary approvals to build a simple commercial warehouse in the economy’s largest business city, connect it to basic utilities and register the property so that it can be used as collateral or transferred to another entity.

According to the report, the ranking on the ease of dealing with construction permits is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators; procedures time and cost.

The report shows that dealing with construction permits in Tanzania requires 19 procedures, takes 206 days and costs 564.6 per cent of income per capita.

Globally, Tanzania stands at 174 in the ranking of 185 economies on the ease of dealing with construction permits.

On his part, a Chairman of the Working Group, Mr. Clement Mworia his team will work with the government to make sure that procedures to obtain construction permits are simplified but at the same time are efficient.