Summary
Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday signed five International Development Association (IDA) loan agreements with the World Bank (WB) worth $1.167 billion: equivalent to Sh2.69 trillion.
The five projects involved are to foster the nation’s agenda on building a competitive industrial economy, improving infrastructure and energy access, strengthening education systems as well as the business and investment environment.
Speaking yesterday during the signing event, the minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, said the relatively huge loan would help in fighting poverty, and also support the government’s goals for sustainable development.
“This was also a sign of good faith from international organisations in the administration of President Samia Suluhu Hassan. This is indeed huge financing, and for them to give us such a huge loan means they have faith in our government that we’ll pay it all back,” he said.
According to the minister, the projects (with their values shown in brackets) are the Tanzania Road to Inclusion and Socioeconomic Opportunities (RISE) ($300 million), Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) ($425 million) and the Digital Tanzania Project (DTP) ($346.6 million).
Others are Zanzibar Energy Sector Transformation and Access (ZESTA) project ($142 million), and Boosting Inclusive Growth for Zanzibar: Integrated Development project (BIG-Z) ($150 million).
Dr Nchemba said “The five projects’ financing bring the World Bank’s existing portfolio in Tanzania to $5.5 billion.”
WB’s country director, Ms Mara Warwick, stated that the five projects would contribute to the country’s development goals, as well as strengthen human capital and infrastructures needed to create more jobs for Tanzanians.
“These five projects are expected to bring significant benefits to a large number of Tanzanians, many of whom live in rural areas and in Zanzibar,” Ms Warwick said.
She also said that the WB is proud to support Tanzania’s development programmes as it marks its lower-middle income status and progresses towards achieving its development vision for 2025.
In the case of the RISE project, the minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government: PO-RALG), Ummy Mwalimu, said the government plans to develop 535 kilometres of tarmac roads, prioritising rural regions.
“The project will be implemented in all the 26 administrative regions in Tanzania-Mainland, and the first phase would involve six districts in three key agriculture production regions,” she said.
The project would also generate 35,000 civil work opportunities, including 19,000 under community-based routine maintenance contracts for rural communities adjacent to the roads. 20 percent of the jobs would be directed at women.
The Education minister, Prof Joyce Ndalichako, said funds for the HEET project would be used to expand and improve the quality of education through the maintenance and improvement of education infrastructures. “It will modernise 260 academic programmes in priority degree areas, and directly improve management and infrastructure for 14 higher education institutions,” she said.
Speaking on the two projects for Zanzibar, the Isle’s Finance and Planning minister, Jamal Kassim Ali, said the ZESTA project is intended to expand access to reliable energy, and scale up renewable energy generation in Zanzibar.
“The project would contribute to the installation and operation of a battery energy storage system (BESS) for 40MW,” he said.
Through the BIG-Z project, the minister said it targets to increase access to improved living conditions and services delivery in the selected areas, as well as enhance the institutional capacity of the government.
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