Rukwa Region is known as one of the country’s breadbaskets for its
bumper harvests of maize. Investments in agro-processing are likely to
add value to harvested maize and encourage growth of the agro-sector in
the region. PHOTO| MUSSA MWANGOKA
By Lucas Liganga, The Citizen Reporter
In Summary
- As Mtwara and Lindi regions are opening up following discoveries of oil and gas, Rukwa is endowed with mineral resources such as iron, silver, coal, lead, limestone, mica and gemstone
Sumbawanga. Rukwa Region,
located in south-western Tanzania 1,200 kilometres from the commercial
capital Dar es Salaam, will throughout this week be in local and
international headlines as it showcases its investment opportunities
which are in abundance.
Dubbed one of the handful backward regions, a
group that includes Lindi, Mtwara, Kigoma, Ruvuma and Coast, Rukwa, with
a population of 1,004,539 people has the potential to pull itself out
of this economic quagmire if it would be able to convince the multitude
of local and international investors attending the investment forum that
started in Sumbawanga yesterday.
As Mtwara and Lindi regions are opening up
following discoveries of oil and gas, Rukwa is endowed with mineral
resources such as iron, silver, coal, lead, limestone, mica and gemstone
most of which are not yet exploited while prospecting of petroleum and
gas is going on in Lake Tanganyika and Lake Rukwa.
“Rukwa Region is now ready for investments,” beams
Mr Chrisant Mzindakaya, a retired civil servant and politician, who is
now probably the region’s leading investor owning a cattle ranch and a
state-of-the-art meat processing plant in the east African region.
Mr Mzindakaya says the investment forum which
started yesterday through November 1, this year, when President Jakaya
Kikwete will speak to the investors in Sumbawanga, the region’s capital,
will provide a platform to prospective investors to understand
investment potentialities in the region.
“Rukwa Region is teaming up with other Lake
Tanganyika zone regions of Katavi and Kigoma in showcasing their
investment potentials in tourism, agriculture, fisheries and livestock
keeping,” says the retired politician who served as a Member of
Parliament for 44 years and as regional commissioner for Mbeya,
Morogoro, Kigoma and Rukwa for 13 years.
Mr Mzindakaya pays fulsome tribute to Rukwa
regional commissioner, Eng. Stella Martin Manyanya and her counterparts
in Katavi and Kigoma for working tirelessly in organising the investment
forum which will open new economic and development chapters for the
three peripheral regions.
“Their commitment towards the economic development
of the Lake Tanganyika zone is undoubtedly encouraging, and they have
the full support of wananchi,” says Mr Mzindakaya who also owns a decent
Kalambo Falls Gorge Hotel in Sumbawanga.
He says poor road infrastructure in the region has
significantly slowed down development but this will soon be history
following the government’s move to construct to tarmac level the
240-kilometre Tunduma-Sumbawanga road, another 240-kilometre
Sumbawanga-Mpanda road and Sumbawanga-Kasanga road connecting to Lake
Tanganyika.
“The construction of the Tunduma-Sumbawanga road
has been completed by 90 per cent and the Sumbawanga-Mpanda road has
reached 50 per cent. Rukwa Region will soon be connected throughout the
country,” he says.
Eng. Manyanya, who has been busy throughout the
month making sure that the investment forum becomes a success, says upon
completion of the construction of the roads Rukwa will be linked with
cities and towns throughout the country.
“The region will also be connected to central and
southern African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia and other SADC countries,” she says in an
interview with The Citizen
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