By
The Permanent Secretary in Zanzibar’s Finance and Planning ministry, Mr Juma Malik Akil, said yesterday reliance on loans from donors was
delaying the implementation of development projects.He said the time has now come to change and start using modern
financial institutions with stable and fast-moving systems.
“We are losing opportunities, we have stuck to borrowing. They are
good loans with low interests but are delaying us in our development
activities, at that time the costs you use to get a loan are higher than what
you deserve to get,” said Mr Malik
Mr Malik made the comment during a meeting of financial
stakeholders on how to get funds digitally and discuss alternative methods
using other financial institutions for running other government projects and
activities.
“We need to change and go digital, we need to get out of the
old systems of using traditional methods of seeking affordable loans from
banking institutions and donors because they take long to get,” he said.
With that logic, Mr Malik said the systems of the modern financial
institutions are fast moving because a loan can be obtained within one or two
months.
He said the development budget is one quarter and two quarters are
for normal spending and that no economy can grow in that way.
For his part, the Director of the Zanzibar Research Centre for
Socio-Economic and Policy Analysis (ZRCP), Mr Juma Hassa Reli, said the digital
economy has helped many countries grow, including Singapore, China, the United
States and even Kenya.
He elaborated that the digital economies of those countries have
currently reached $4.9 million (Sh11.5 billion) in total.
Mr Reli explained that those countries have progressed further in
investing in Fintech institutions.
He noted that such institutions could get funds out of the normal
banking system, which is bureaucratic with high interest rates.
“So, we do not need to wait for loans from the banks as we
can establish such institutions,” Mr Reli said.
No comments :
Post a Comment