TZ said to face acute shortage of technicians and architects

HAZLA OMAR in Arusha

TANZANIA may be well catered for when it comes to the number of qualified engineers working on various projects, however it has emerged that the country faces a shortage of technicians and architects to provide critical back-up services.

The Deputy Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Engineer Stella Manyanya, says as the country moves towards attaining an industrial revolution and building a stable economy through industrial development, there is a need to have a wider base of technicians and architects who usually undertake the real construction works on site.

“When it comes to the engineering profession, we have all the top level experts, but there is a shortage at the lower segment comprising technicians who actually do the works as opposed to the top echelons that are better at planning and supervising,” the deputy minister said.

She was speaking during the congregation of engineers, technicians and architects organised by the Engineers Registration Board (ERB) and held at the Arusha Technical College (ATC), where it was observed that, the country was facing an acute shortage of architects and technicians.

The Chairperson of Engineers Registration Board, Professor Ninatubu Lema, said the country had 22,230 registered engineers, 2,200 of whom were women.

“There are just about 1,000 technicians and architects combined but international requirements dictate that one engineer on site must work with five technicians and 25 architects,” he said, adding: “With such a demand, it means the country still needs 110,000 architects and 550,000 technicians to complement the existing number of engineers.”

However, according to Engineer Lema, there was still the possibility that some technicians and architects were out there in the field but hadn’t been registered.

We are now encouraging them to enlist with the Engineers Board in order to be counted.

“We started registering technicians and architects in the Engineers Registration Board back in 2014, that is just four years ago; therefore it is possible that there are many such lower-level experts who are yet to enlist with the board,” Prof Lema said.