Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s pursuit of economic diplomacy is opening business opportunities for Tanzanians within and outside the East African Community (EAC), analysts have said.
Those who spoke during a recent Zoom meeting said the opportunities got wide open after President Samia Suluhu Hassan visited Kenya, Uganda and Burundi among other countries during the past few months.
President Hassan ascended to the presidency at a time when Tanzania was going its own way in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Amidst different approaches among EAC partner states in their fight against the pandemic, Kenya announced a ban on imports of Ugandan and Tanzanian maize in what was announced to be an attempt to curb shipping (to Kenya) of the cancer-causing aflatoxin.
But Tanzania swiftly changed its stand and started speaking the same language with its counterparts in the region and beyond.
Apparently, informed by frosty trade relations that existed between Tanzania and Kenya, President Hassan, who came to power in March 2021, made her first two-day state visit to Kenya in May, 2021 in the company of senior government officials and members of the business community. The two countries signed several agreements that benefit Tanzanians and Kenyans, including removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs).
Among the notable benefits was an almost immediate lifting of maize import ban from Tanzania to Kenya.
In August, 2021, Kenya’s Agriculture ministry announced that maize imports from Tanzania to Kenya had jumped more than six-fold to 118,329 bags in May. Kenya’s Agriculture ministry said the volumes jumped from 16,137 bags in April to a monthly record of 118,329 in May.
According to Tanzania’s High Commissioner to Kenya John Simbachawene, apart from agriculture, the benefits also extend to businesses in transport, trade and energy sectors.
“In fact, we are talking about 12 agreements that were signed when President Hassan visited Kenya in May last year,” he said during the Zoom meeting coordinated by Watch Tanzania. In the visit, the two countries also scrapped a total of 54 NTBs to trading.
Massive opportunities
He called upon Tanzanian banks to consider opening subsidiaries in Kenya in their expansion plans and for Air Tanzania Company Limited to start flying between Zanzibar and Nairobi as well as between Zanzibar and Mombasa.
“They should also consider flights between Kilimanjaro and Nairobi. Businesses in Tanzania must also seriously consider land transport between Dar es Salaam and Nairobi because the number of travellers between the two destinations is high yet they are served by only three buses,” he said. Kenya also has a good market for food products like rice, fruits and soybeans among others.
According to Tanzania’s ambassador to Burundi Jilly Maleko Bujumbura sources 48 percent of its imports from Tanzania. This, he said offers an opportunity for Tanzania to up its exports of such products as cement to Burundi especially currently as the latter’s economy was improving.
“Currently, Zambia is the main source of imported cement in Burundi and this means that if Tanzanian manufacturers invest more, they can get a better pie of that market,” he said, adding that the planned construction of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) between Uvinza and Burundi will raise the demand for cement event higher.
Investing in modern ships to transport passengers and cargo in Lake Tanganyika between Tanzania and Burundi would also make economic sense.
While the same would also apply effectively in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania’s ambassador to the country Said Mshana was of the view that investing in electricity generation would yield lucrative returns.
He said currently, the DRC’s various sources have the potential of producing up to 100,000 Megawatts. Yet, he said, it was only 2.5 percent of the DRC’s power generation potential that was currently being utilised.
Having gone to Uganda for three times since she was sworn in, President Hassan has maintained her country’s cordial relations with Uganda and this has seen the two countries upping their tempo to jointly and effectively implement the $3.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Ecop).
High Commissioner to Uganda Aziz Mlima said the project offers a number of opportunities for members of the business community in Tanzania to utilise.
“We are talking of those who engage in such services as welding, law and food suppliers among the many,” he said.
In South Sudan, the demand for agricultural products, especially food crops, is high, according to Tanzania’s ambassador to the country Silima Haji Kombo. South Sudanese need tea, coffee and tobacco from Tanzania.
The chief executive officer for Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited (MeTL), Mr Mohamed Dewji, said the EAC’s business environment was improving and increasingly offering prospects for good yields to investors.
He said agriculture was an area with a huge potential, giving an example of sisal whose price has largely increased in the global market.
In order to properly tap the opportunities, CCM’s secretary general Daniel Chongolo said Tanzanians need to cooperate with each other and do away with suppressive sentiments.
According to Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry’s permanent secretary Godius Kahyarara, it was due to the pursuit of economic diplomacy that Tanzania has managed to raise the value of its exports during the past few months.
Bank of Tanzania data shows that the value of exports of goods and services increased to $10.827 billion during the year ending May 2022 from $8.618 billion during the year ending May 2021.
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