PRESIDENT John Magufuli has assured tobacco farmers of reliable market and reasonable prices for their produce, thanks to the inauguration of a third cigarette making factory at an investment of 65bn/- in Morogoro by Philip Morris Tanzania (PMT), through a manufacturing agreement with Mansoor Industries Limited.
Before the new company, there were two cigarette making industries in the country - namely the Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC) and Mastermind Tobacco Tanzania Limited. Speaking at the launch of the PMT factory in Morogoro, yesterday, Dr Magufuli was confident that the market for tobacco farmers will be broadened and at reasonable prices, owing to the coming of the new kid on the block in cigarette making.
“Establishment of industries which use local raw materials is essential in many aspects, including improving income for farmers, creation of jobs and increasing revenues to the government,” President Magufuli explained during an address beamed live by local television stations. As the country envisages industrialised economy by the year 2025, Dr Magufuli stated matter-of-factly that Tanzania must shun exporting raw materials and embark on value addition in local industries.
“There were a lot of industries which were established in the past, but collapsed due to bad governance. Morogoro was, for instance, an industrial hub for Tanzania, but almost all factories failed. We must learn from our mistakes not to allow our industries collapse,” President Magufuli told the audience.
The President explained that he had directed ministers responsible for finance and industry to scrutinise taxes on imports so as to check cheating by dishonest importers who, for instance, bring into the country semi-refined edible oil disguised as crude oil, which attracts no import taxes. “Importation of semi-refined edible oil has made our local industries uncompetitive; sometimes even the oil is substandard leading to various diseases on our people,” he charged.
Dr Magufuli urged more investors to set up factories in Tanzania since the country enjoys political stability and conduciveinvestment and business environment. In addition, investments in Tanzania are assured of a domestic market of 55 million people and additional markets of 165 and about 400 million people in the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), respectively.
Earlier, the General Manager of PMT, Ms Dagmara Piasecka, said the industry has created 224 direct jobs, explaining further that its production capacity can be increased to 2.5 billion cigarettes per year. “We chose Tanzania for this investment due to favourite business environment, tranquility, the trend of economic growth and steady polices. We have put in place a local content policy to train local employees and empowering entrepreneurs,” she stated.
The Morogoro Regional Commissioner (RC), Dr Stephen Kebwe, assured President Magufuli that his area would surpass the nationwide target for each region to have 100 factories. “Our plan is to have small industries from village level; we are rest assured of surpassing the set target of 100 factories,” Dr Kebwe boasted. Meanwhile, Dr Magufuli has warned government leaders against tolerating people fond of encroaching reserved forest areas for agriculture and building houses and afterwards plead with him to avail the land to the invaders.
The Head of State issued the warning in a response to a request by Dr Kebwe, who had requested that Dr Magufuli avail land which had been encroached at Mvomero to the encroachers. “Why should regional and district officials allow people to set up structures in reserved areas and later ask me to grant the same to the invaders, do you want me to break the law?” he queried, seemingly irked. President Magufuli pledged to look into the matter, but warned that never should such an incident occur again
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