Tap potentials to achieve middle income status

By Editor

Editorial Cartoon

We are more than elated to learn that Tanzania is on the right economic track to achieve middle income status by 2025.

 

The news from none other than the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor, Prof Benno Ndulu, himself comes against the backdrop of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growing at the average of seven per cent each year for the past two years. 

 

But there is a catch here! According to Prof Ndulu, all that we need is proper utilisation of available natural resources. These include gas and oil, although the tourist industry and agriculture are sufficient to push Tanzania’s economy to the next level.

 

What we expect to have good effects to the economy is, without doubt, gas extraction. It is expected that full use of natural gas from the southern part of Tanzania will start early next year when the gas pipeline will have reached Dar es Salaam.

 

Although at present gas is being used to generate some electricity, residents will get its full benefits when they will be able to use it for domestic purposes like cooking.

 

When this happens it will mean a great relief, especially to Dar es Salaam residents who will be spending less on power. Electricity from gas will definitely be cheaper than that from water which the residents presently use.

 

Given the fact that fuel is also expected to decrease in price, this will all the more mean a cheaper life for Tanzanians as a whole.  

 

With natural gas in place, however, we also expect that our industries will turn to using it instead of the more expensive fuel  they now use. 

 

It is now time that our factories should start making changes to their equipment in view of the dawn of gas, if they haven’t already done so.

Naturally, with the use of gas, the cost of production for goods from these factories will also go down and so will their prices. At the end of it all their products are bound to go down and make them compete on an even keel with other goods on the world market.  

 

This is not to talk about Tanzania’s agriculture. According to the World Bank, in 2009 the country had 10,000,000 hectares of arable land. If put to good use, this country could easily be the granary of East African Community partner states.

 

Tanzania has also many tourist attractions and approximately 38 per cent of its land area is set aside for conservation. There are 16 national parks, 29 game reserves, 40 controlled conservation areas (including the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and marine parks. 

 

Tanzania is also home to Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest in Africa. Travel and tourism contributed 12.7 percent of Tanzania's gross domestic product and employed 11.0 percent of the country's labour force (1,189,300 jobs) in 2013.

 

The sector is growing rapidly, rising from US $1.74 billion in 2004 to US $4.48 billion in 2013. In 2012, 1,043,000 tourists arrived at Tanzania's borders compared to 590,000 in 2005.

 

If we put to good use all these potentials there is no clear reason why the country cannot achieve its goal of being a middle class economy by 2025. We only need to tap these potentials.