THE Deputy Minister
in President's Office Public Service Management and Good Governance, Mr
Deogratious Ndejembi has directed the Property and Business
Formalization Programme, abbreviated as-Mkurabita to focus on improving
the wellbeing of the youth.
He said youth is the largest population whose talents and activities have not been formalized.
Mkurabita that came into operation in 2004 has uplifted only 5 per cent of the informal sector in the country from poverty, and thus the deputy minister believes much can still be attained if the strategy is smartly crafted to benefit young people in the country.
"There are always going to be a shortage of funds, but it is high time that Mkurabita's strategies and programmes are coordinated with other ministries," he said, naming such offices as the Office of the Prime Minister, Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development and well as the President' Office Regional Administration and Local Governments.
Mr Ndejembi further said Mkurabita should intensify its strategy to reach a wider population, especially people at the grassroots.
He said strategically, Mkurabita should schedule its actions from one region or district to another and give room for the population to know their activities and aim.
Until now Mkurabita has been rolled out in 52 councils across the Mainland Tanzania, showing three times lag behind against all 182 councils.
"We need to move fast enough to ensure more Tanzanians benefit from this programme.
"Most challenges facing the programme include land related conflicts and a plight that puts the country's peace at risk," said Mr Ndejembi, adding that more than 60 per cent of the Tanzanian population is engaged in the informal sector as the youth.
This population, should be supported with financial knowledge to ensure their businesses are sustainable even after being formalized.
Commenting, Mkurabita Programme Coordinator and Chief Executive Office, Dr Seraphia Mgembe said her office has prepared a new strategy that targets to increase the number of formalized businesses and properties by 10 per cent in 2025.
She further said there were over 25,000 land disputes registered before the programme and now 64 per cent of them have been settled.
She said the programme has helped the public both farmers and traders use their land and properties to borrow over 1.06trn/- from financial institutions and improve in production.
Mkurabita, she said, has been able to formalize 113,000 plantations in rural Tanzania as well as 10,977 plots in urban Tanzania.
"We have been working together with the councils and government departments including the Tanzania Revenue Authority and Small Industries Development Organization," she said, detailing that to facilitate trade formalization, the programme helped to establish 11 business centres in Mainland Tanzania and one in the Isle.
She said the programme has also helped in revenue collection and increased the value for land in areas it operates in.
No comments :
Post a Comment