Wednesday, February 15, 2017

TANZANIA DAILY HOT BUSINESS NEWS

DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo (DRC) has pledged to continue using Dar es Salaam port for imports and exports due to its safety and vicinity to their country.
The Governor of Katanga province in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Jean Claude Kazembe Musonda, said during his tour to the port in Dar es Salaam yesterday the aim of his visit was to continue maintaining friendship in economic sector.
“We decided to visit Tanzania to maintain our friendship and strengthen economic ties. Also to strengthen bilateral trade investment opportunity that would help to boost economy of both countries,” he said.
He said that the relationship between the two countries has helped improving business environment, formalize trade and strengthen economic ties. He added, “Our presidents are friends, we (traders) should be friends and continue to maintain the friendship in business and in other sectors for the benefit of the people.”
Mr Kazembe said DRC government is equally happy that some challenges faced by the port in past years have been solved in recent months. “We are happy to see some challenges solved and our cargo given first priority when entering the port. We need to see our economic ties promoted and improved for the development of our people,” he said.
He added that the 50 per cent of DRC businesses are conducted through the Dar es Salaam Port and we will continue using the facility. Mr Musonda said that the plans are underway to construct bridges that will strengthen economic ties between three countries of Tanzania, DRC and Zambia.
“On our visit to Tanzania we met the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Prof Makame Mbarawa, to discuss the construction of bridge that will cost 85 million US dollars. The bridge would help to fast truck business activities in Tanzania, DRC and Zambia,” he said.
He called upon other neighbouring countries and other countries to continue using TPA as many challenges has been solved.

TANZANITE Gemstones valued at more than 9.3bn/- changed hands during the second Mineral Auction in Arusha Region over the weekend.
The Director of Diamond and Gemstones Valuation Unit of Tanzania Mineral Sorting Company (TANSORT), Mr Richard Karugendo, said this year’s auction beat last year event by over 2bn/- worth of sales because during the 2016 auction minerals worth 7bn/- were sold.
A total of 68 mineral firms participated in the 2017 auction, 39 being Tanzanian companies while the rest came from other nations including Kenya, India, Sri-Lanka, China, Switzerland and Germany.
The Manyara Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Joel Bendera, said the success of the second mineral auction reinforced the importance of ongoing initiatives to build mineral export processing zone at Mirerani Hills in Simanjiro District where the rare blue gemstones are mined.
“Simanjiro produces the most valuable minerals but as it happens, the District suffers the most problems, including lack of tarmac road, diseases like HIV-Aids infections, performs badly in education with many of its residents reeling in poverty,” said the RC.
He added, “We have already secured a vast plot onto which the Tanzanite EPZ will be established and that all polishing, processing and branding will be done before the gemstones gets exported.” Mr Bendera was on view that the EPZ at the foot of Mirerani Hills will solve the problem of mineral smuggling which has been the major concern as far as Tanzanite Gemstones are concerned.
“There will be no longer complaints of our precious gems to be labelled as coming from India or Kenya,” he said. The TANSORT official, Mr Archad Karugedo, said the government earned dividends worth 466.4m/- which is a climb from the 380m/- revenues earned last year.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), Mr Geoffrey Kirenga
THE Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) does not use genetically modified organism (GMO) technology in its large scale farming initiatives in the country as it is not yet approved by the government.
The SAGCOT Chief Executive Officer, Geoffrey Kirenga, said in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that the seeds used in their initiatives have been approved by the government and would never adopt a technology that has not been approved.
“The technology we use is that which has been approved and since so far there is no GMO variety that has been approved, we do not use GMO technology,” he said at a seminar for editors and senior reporters. Tanzania does not allow the use of GMO products, although it has allowed research into GMOs to promote scientific research.
The government maintains a regulatory blockage under a ‘strict liability’ law adopted in 2009, where anyone involved with importing, moving, storing or using GM products could be sued, if someone else claimed the product caused them harm or loss.
And that broad definition went beyond personal, it included environmental damage. SAGCOT covers approximately one-third of mainland Tanzania, extending north and south of the central rail, road and power ‘backbone’ that runs from Dar es Salaam to the northern areas of Zambia and Malawi.
It covers Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya, Morogoro, Rukwa and Katavi regions which used to form the food basket of the country. Mr Kirenga said SAGCOT envisions that at least 2.1 billion US dollars of private investments would be catalysed over a 20-year period which will be supplemented with a public sector commitment of 1.3 billion US dollars.
The result will be tripling of the area’s agricultural output. Approximately, 350,000 hectares will be brought into profitable production, much of it to be managed by smallholder farmers, he said.
He said SAGCOT expects by 2030 tens of thousands smallholders will become commercial farmers, with access to irrigation and weather insurance and at least 420,000 new employment opportunities created in the agricultural value chain.
They also expect that by 2030 more than two million people would be permanently lifted out of poverty and there would be annual value of farming revenue of 1.2 billion US dollars. Mr Kirenga called on the mainstream media to take up the challenge of telling about the great story in agriculture and agribusiness sector as it remains untold.
He said the great potential of the sector which contributes about 30 per cent of the economy was largely underreported and challenged editors and journalists to promote investment and business opportunities available in agriculture.
“Tanzania has plenty of agricultural potential and opportunities compared to any of Eastern and Central African country,” he said.
Agriculture which is mainly rain-fed and dominated by smallholders farmers, is the mainstay of the economy, contributing about 29 per cent of the economy in 2015 up from 28.8 per cent in 2014 making it the largest contribution, surpassing all other sectors. It employs about 65 per cent of Tanzanians and covers more than 100 per cent of the domestic food needs in favourable seasons.
The media stood a better chance to inform and educate people on the existing opportunities in agriculture for the country’s growth and development, he said. He said it was an undeniable fact that agriculture has a lot of opportunities which could transform people’s living standards and the proper channel for them to be informed and educated was through the media.
Africa has of late become a battleground for GMO technology with proponents arguing GM crops have the potential to bring about the second green revolution that will solve hunger problems in the continent and opponents, dismissing the arguments as mere public relations gimmicks by big multinational companies who use the new technology to expand into Africa’s lucrative agriculture market.

SIMIYU Regional Commissioner Anthony Mtaka
TANZANIA Revenue Authority (TRA) has been requested to immediately open a regional office in Simiyu Region so as to easy tax collections and offer services to taxpayers in the area.
Simiyu Region was formed in 2012; but since then TRA has not built a regional office. The Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Anthon Mtaka, said yesterday during the business forum that traders and other taxpayers in the region are being forced to travel to Shinyanga Region to seek TRA’s services.
He said there is need for TRA to bring services close to the people and thus asked the taxman to do everything in his power to establish the regional office in the area. “I think it will be good if TRA establishes a regional office here, it is very disturbing to see traders travelling all the way from Simiyu to Shinyanga to pay tax to his government,” he said.
The request forced the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Prof Elisante Ole Gabriel, to intervene and ask the reasons behind failure to build a regional TRA office for five years now since the establishment of the region.
He said TRA must do everything in its powers to open the office so that people could easily pay tax to the government. He tasked the TRA Director for Taxpayer Services, Richard Kayombo, to make a follow up on the matter.
“I want you to communicate with the TRA commissioner and I believe you will, if you can’t, then I will talk to my fellow PS in the Ministry for Finance and Planning and see how we can solve this matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, presenting the TSN’s plans for Simiyu Region, the company’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Mr Januarius Maganga, said TSN is looking forward to offer professional consultancy, strengthen link between ‘wananchi’ and the government and vice versa as well as enable people to get reliable information on time.
The TIB Head of Business and Marketing, Ms Theresia Soka, said TIB Current Partnership to Simiyu focuses on agriculture on which 563m/- has been allocated to support local farmers in the region.
Also the bank has allocated 56.3bn/-for agro-processing and trade

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), Mr Geoffrey Kirenga
THE mainstream media should take up the challenge to tell about the great story in agriculture and agribusiness sector as it remains untold.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), Mr Geoffrey Kirenga said in Dar es Salaam at the weekend that the great potential of the sector which contributes about 30 per cent of the economy was largely underreported and challenged editors and journalists to promote investment and business opportunities available in agriculture.
“Tanzania has plenty of agricultural potential and opportunities compared to any of Eastern and Central African country,” he said at the SAGCOT organised seminar for editors and senior writers on its activities and opportunities available in agriculture held in Dar es Salaam.
Agriculture which is mainly rain-fed and dominated by smallholders farmers, is the mainstay of the economy, contributing about 29 per cent of the economy in 2015 up from 28.8 per cent in 2014 making it the largest contribution, surpassing all other sectors.
It employs about 65 per cent of Tanzanians and covers more than 100 per cent of the domestic food needs in favorable seasons. The media stood a better chance to inform and educate people on the existing opportunities in agriculture for the country’s growth and development, he said.
He said it was an undeniable fact that agriculture has a lot of opportunities which could transform people’s living standards and the proper channel for them to be informed and educated was through the media. “There is a good market of agricultural products be it local or foreign.
I appeal to you (Editors) help Tanzanians through your pen to unleash potentials and opportunities available in agriculture,” he said. Despite having what it takes to feed its rapid growing population and become a major food exporter to the East and Southern African region due to its large arable land, Tanzania was still importing food and had not yet capitalized in the regional market, he said.
“It is a shame to import food while we have plenty of fertile land in our country plus a broad market opportunity.
We have ample opportunities to develop our agro-industry to tap into regional markets,” he said, calling for editors to assist and conveying good messages to people on opportunities in agriculture.
According to Mr Kirenga, much has already been done by SAGCOT since its inception five years ago in transforming agricultural productivity in Tanzania’s Southern corridor.
Earlier, the Deputy CEO of the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) Centre Ltd, Ms Jennifer Baarn said the centre would hold Annual Partnership Forum for 2017 next month. SAGCOT is an inclusive, multistakeholder partnership to rapidly develop the region’s agricultural potential

STRONG demand characterised treasury bills auction last week supported by high liquidity in the market to close the business oversubscribed.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) auction summary shows that the instrument attracted bids worth 400.28bn/- in the auction held last week compared to 138.7bn/- offered to the market although at the end 255.04bn/- became the successful amount. The NMB e-market report states that the Treasury bill auction oversubscribed on Wednesday by 261bn/-.
As a result, plenty of liquidity in the market with overnight rates around 7per cent. Yield rates declined slightly across all tenures, but did not affect high investors’ appetite on the short term government note. Major investors in the one year treasury bills are commercial banks, pension funds, insurance companies and some micro- finance institutions.
The two tenures 364 and 182 days contributed 98 per cent of the total bids during the trading session.
The 364 and 182 days offer attracted bids worth 240.66bn/- and 154.63bn/-respectively against 85.5bn/-and 50.5bn/- offered to the market for bidding.
The 91 and 35 days offer attracted bids worth 2.58bn/- and 2.41bn/- respectively compared to 2bn/- and 700m/- offered to the market. Yield rates for the 364 and 182 days offer were 15.75 per cent and 14.41 per cent from 15.77 per cent and 14.49 per cent of the previous session held two weeks ago.
The yield rates for the 91 and 35 days tenure were 7.10 per cent and 6.50 per cent in the 12 months Treasury note. The highest and lowest bid/100 for the 364 and 182 days offers were 86.80/ 85.40 and 93.39/ 92.62 respectively while for the 91 and 35 days tenor had 98.26/ 98.25 and 99.38/ 99.30.
The minimum successful price/100 for the 364, 182 and 91 days offer were 86.24, 93.26, 98.26 and 99.38 respectively. The weighed average price for successful bid for the 364 tenure was 86.43, the 182 days offer was 93.30, 91 days offer was 98.26 and 99.38 for the 35 days offer.

KENYA has agreed to resolve the matter pertaining to denial of duty free access of wheat flour from Tanzania.
The East African Community Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (EAC-SCTIFI) that met early this month in Arusha, Tanzania took note that Kenya had agreed to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
“The Secretariat was aware of the issue and that as an operational matter can be resolved at that level since wheat flour qualifies to be accorded community tariff treatment,” stated East African Business Council (EABC) Trade and Policy Brief for February, 2017.
Last month, DPL Festive Limited ordered 40 trucks of wheat flour from Said Salim Bahkresa and Company Limited. Unfortunately after all entries for 40 trucks were passed and approved by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officer in Namanga, an order came from the Head office re-directing all the trucks to be held back or pay full duty of 50 per cent.
The KRA decision came following Kenyan millers’ accusation to Kenya officials at the borders of letting zero-rated wheat from Tanzania enter the country, yet Kenyans pay up to 50 per cent duties when exporting their products to East Africa including Tanzania. The Kenya-Tanzania borders of Namanga, Loitokitok, Lunga Lunga and Isibania (Sirare) have been named the notorious cross points in the trade.
“If we export to other countries we pay taxes, but Tanzanians are bringing in zero-rated wheat products. We have at least 10 trucks from Tanzania every day,” Cereal Millers Association said.
Tanzania imports its wheat, hence should not enjoy tax incentives under the East Africa Community Customs Union rule of origin, which gives preferential treatment to locally produced goods. “We need equal treatment. We can only do this by making sure duty is paid on Tanzania wheat flour.
Informal imports brought in through the borders are affecting Mombasa and Nairobi,” they said. Kenyan millers are supporting local farmers by buying 10 per cent of their stocks locally.
This has made Kenyan products more expensive giving Tanzania an edge over Kenya.

NHC Director General, Mr Nehemiah Mchechu
THE National Housing Corporation (NHC) has launched the sale of 300 housing units at Iyumbu Satellite Centre in Dodoma Region, being built at a cost of 12.3bn/-. Initiated in December 2016, the project is designed to accommodate the government officials and commercial investors, among others.
NHC Director General Nehemia Mchechu said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the scheme, to be completed in June this year, was set up after the government move to shift to Dodoma from the commercial city, Dar es Salaam.
The Satellite Centre, located 10 kms from Dodoma City, is adjacent to the University of Dodoma and constitutes three-roomed stand-alone housing units laid in 79 square kilometres, 85 and 115 square kilometres.
The houses are connected with well set water system and electricity, nursery school, dispensary, a shopping mall, among other social amenities. Other amenities include play grounds and ample car packing for residents and tenants within the settlement. Mchechu said that the housing units can be acquired through mortgage finance or progressive payment plan.
“The houses are designed to suit urban living environment targeting middle and low income group,” he noted.
He explained that the houses would be sold at the price of 57.67m/-, 62m/- and 83.95m/-, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT). In another development, Mchechu said that his organisation in collaboration with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) would start building more affordable housing units in Dodoma whose payment will not exceed 30m/-.
He said the project is due to start in May this year. “We are planning to set up the two-bedroom housing unit in Dodoma City in order to suit the needs of all Tanzanians,” he said

ABDUEL ELINAZA
STOCK market investors are optimistic that the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) can handle the anticipated big primary offer from telecommunications companies scheduled to list at the bourse.
The DSE survey shows 50 per cent of sample size believe the market is liquid enough to handle 1.5tri/- primary offer of tele-companies.
The survey results show those who trusted the market has ability representing 19 per cent of total votes and those who said not all but partial 31 per cent. The combination of two at least shows that the market has the ability to buy the IPOs by 50 per cent of leading tele-firms namely Vodacom, Tigo, Airtel, Zantel, TTCL and Smart. On the other hand, those who doubted were 44 per cent, while 6 per cent don't know.
The survey, published on the first week of last month on DSE insight twitter, asked ‘wananchi’ about buying ability of the market for historical IPOs for phone companies. Some stockbrokers believed the market has ability to handle the entire initial primary offer (IPO) for mobile phone service providers.
Zan Securities Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Raphael Masumbuko said he strongly believed that the market was liquid enough to handle those IPOs. “We wanted phone firms to list for the last three years. We were ready then and we are now.
The market has that ability,” Mr Masumbuko said yesterday. “However, the IPOs should not be accompanied by unnecessary conditions like restriction on exit and entry,” he cautioned.
Stockbrokers also banked selling of the tele-companies to regional blocs like SADC and East African Community (EAC). “We have a very good mutual business agreement with our counterparts in SADC. We are exchanging a number of dealing on our markets,” Mr Masumbuko said.
Capital Markets and Securities Authority, Principal Public Relations Officer, Charles Shirima, said yesterday only two firms have submitted formal application for IPO. “Vodacom and Tigo have submitted their prospectus. Voda is ahead of others.
Tigo have been asked to improve their prospectus,” Mr Shirima said. He said list of telecom stipulated by the Electronic and Postal Communications Act, (Cap. 306) is long and has over 50 firms under different categories.
The main ones are big five that controls over 40 million subscribers and required to offload 25 per cent of local ownership to the public. Others feared that lining up the firms might end with some shares left unsold thus defeating the good intention of offloading the shares to the public via DSE.
By the end of November last year, extended broad money supply, M3, increased by 4.6 per cent or 981.2bn/- to 22.5tri/-.
The increase was low compared to 14.6 per cent or 2.7tri/- of November 2015. Bank of Tanzania (BoT) latest monthly review attributed the slow increase of money supply to contraction in the net foreign assets of the banking system and slowdown in the growth of credit to the private.
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