By John Namkwahe
Dar
es Salaam — President John Magufuli today, April 2, landed at Mtwara
airport for his official
tour of the region, the second since he became
President in 2015.
Speaking at a
function to inaugurate the expansion of Mtwara Airpot President John
Magufuli ordered an immediate release of Sh50 billion to be paid to the
cashew nut farmers whose documents have been verified, but are yet to
receive their payments.
"The payments will be issued to the farmers whose documents have already been verified," said Dr Magufuli.
The President's
directive comes at a time when some of the farmers in the region who
sold their produce to government had been complaining nonpayment.
Initially, the
government had pledged to issue the remaining payments to the farmers by
March 31. But it failed to do so, on the grounds that it was still
conducting the verification process.
"We could not issue
the payments to the farmers without conducting the verification
process. The process aimed at ensuring that the money goes to the right
persons and not the ghost farmers," explained Dr Magufuli.
He added: We have
managed to identify at least 780 persons who do not own cashew nut
farms. They illegally bought the product from the farmers.
Furthermore, the President said the government was contemplating to process at least 15, 000 tonnes of cashew nuts.
On the expansion of
the airport, President Magufuli said the move aims at improving the
infrastructure at the airport and attract more international tourists,
among others.
"The government has
embarked on plans to revive its aviation sector. This project is among
the similar 11 projects that are being implemented in other regions,"
said President Magufuli.
Meanwhile,
President issued a five-day ultimatum to the Ministry of Works and that
of Finance to issue advance payment to Beijing Construction Engineering
Group (BCEG) with a view to speeding up the project which is scheduled
to be complete by September 2020
No comments :
Post a Comment