Tanzania: Let's Keep Focused to Reach New High of Mineral Sector, Economy

TANZANIA has started reaping what it has been sowing for years, thanks to reforms in various sectors of the economy.

One of the areas which shows significant growth is the mining sector.

The year 2017 is referred to as the mining sector's turning point for today Tanzanians feel a grow of

pride in enjoying the fruits of their natural resources.

Dissolving the 11th sitting of Parliament in June this year, President John Magufuli said the mining sector had undergone major reforms in the past five years of his administration, including the formation of the Ministry of Minerals, control of mineral smuggling and export of raw minerals so that only processed products could be exported instead of raw materials.

Added to this, the government established mineral centres in mineral-rich regions which had made revenue collection to rise to 358.9bn/- in the 2019/20 fiscal year, according to Minister for Minerals Doto Biteko.

Thus, by February this year, there were already 28 mineral centres that had been established across the country and from March 2019 to February this year, 10.33 tonnes of gold, 13,685.74 carats of diamond, 20.10 tonnes of tin, 550.87 tonnes of raw gemstones and 90,532.41 carats of other gemstones were sold through mineral centres.

Before that, there used to be mineral smuggling and tax evasion that was counter-revenue collection.

There are other achievements in other sectors, but it suffices to say that Tanzania is on track in terms of industrial and economic growth so much that the World Bank (WB) recently announced it had classified Tanzania as a lower middle-income economy with its GDP estimated to be between $1,006 and $3,955.

Yet, the Tanzania Development Vision 2025 envisions "Tanzanians will have graduated from a least developed country to a middle-income country by 2025 with a high level of human development."

One of the attributes of this is having a strong and competitive economy with an adequate level of physical infrastructure needed to cope with the requirements of the vision in all sectors of the economy and this is what is happening in various parts of the country.

So, should we sit down? Not at all! We must rather continue working hard to keep up the pace of economic growth and probably qualify for the next level of economic classification in a short time.

Although the coronavirus pandemic has affected us in some ways, we must take it as an opportunity or a stepping stone to move forward rather a setback.