Make right decisions on investing in Tanzania, JK urges Americans

By The guardian reporter

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) takes seat, together with President Kikwete and Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama after arriving for a civil society forum during. (Photo: Reuters)

President Jakaya Kikwete has challenged Americans to go beyond what their media report about the African continent and make right investment decisions.

He made the appeal on Monday when he was named African Leadership Hall of Fame at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. the US. 

 

President Kikwete becomes the third African president to receive the award from The African Leadership Magazine. Other African presidents who have won the award include Sierra Leonese President Ernest Bai Koroma and Namibian President Hifikipunye Pohamba.

 

According to President Kikwete US media reportage on Africa is negative and subjective, something that has made Americans invest little on the continent compared to investments from the Asian countries.

 

Kikwete said America’s private sector and business people need to learn from their Asian counterparts who have invested a lot in Africa.

 

He said one of the major hindrances to the US private sector and businesspersons wanting to invest in Africa is no longer the Atlantic Ocean or distance, but the negative and wrong reportage by America’s media on Africa.

 

He said the end result is that the American private sector has been made to believe that the African continent is very unsafe for investment. In most cases Africa is treated as one country rather than a single continent.

He noted: 

 

“Because of that, a problem facing one country is treated as the continent’s own. This is different from Asia where the media portray a good image of Africa and results from the continent. This is why Asian investments in Africa are more numerous today than was the case some ten years ago.” 

 

The President is in Washington DC attending the ongoing US-African Leaders Summit hosted by President Barack Obama.  Leaders of at least 47 African nations are taking part in the meeting that started on Monday and is scheduled to end today. President Kikwete is on a nine-day official US tour that began on the same day.

 

According to a statement from the State House’s Directorate of Presidential Communications circulated to the media yesterday, Kikwete has applauded Obama for organising the summit.

 

Said Kikwete: “Obama’s decision to organise the meeting with African leaders and America’s private sector is a revolutionary one. Africa has for a long time been waiting for this opportunity to do business with the American people. We are prepared for this opportunity to do as much business as we can.”

 

Before leaving for the US at the weekend, President Kikwete urged more American firms to invest in Tanzania saying the East African nation has the capacity to accommodate ten times the number of US firms now present in the country.

 

 However, a statement from the Directorate of Presidential Communications that was circulated to the media on Sunday did not disclose the number of US firms that have invested in the country so far. But, according to reliable data from the Tanzania Investment Centre, the US is among the best four to five foreign investors in Tanzania.

 

President Kikwete said Tanzania has the capacity to accommodate investments worth over USD4.5bn (roughly 7.4trn/-) from American firms.

 

“There is no doubt that there are investors and business persons who have invested in the country. However, we are sure that the investment and business can be more than they are now,” said the President in the statement.

 

Kikwete mentioned some of the areas in which American firms can right away invest as oil and gas exploration, mining, agriculture and agro-processing industries, industrialization in general, ICT, production and electricity supply.

 

Others include construction and port operations, construction of railway lines, especially the central corridor, and the tourism sector.

 

Apart from investment opportunities, Kikwete said Tanzania is a very peaceful and secure country apart from having a conducive environment for investment and being in a good geographical position. Further, he said, the country has a huge market as it is in both the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). 

 

President Kikwete added that Tanzania was capable of doing more business with the Americans than now when transactions stand at only USD328.8m (roughly 541.2bn/-).

 

• SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN