East African Business Week (Kampala)

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Tanzania: ICT Vital for Tanzania Youth Job Creation

By Kenan Kalagho, 27 May 2013

Dar es Salaam — Tanzania's vision of becoming a middle income country by 2025 will depend on the growth of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

(Dr Hassan Mshinda from COSTECH (left) franked by Dr Deidre Lillis, the Head of School, Computing, Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland Photo By Kenan Kalagho)

There is also need for the country to realize the importance of innovations in the ICT sector in order to stay in touch with the rest of the world.
Dr. Hassan Mshinda was speaking in Dar es Salaam last week, during a breakfast meeting on theme 'The growth in ICT sector: insights from Ireland's success'.
Dr. Mshinda is the Director General of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH).
"We need to look at the strategies the country has in place with regards to ICT," he said.
He said growth of ICT has been widely pointed out as a major boost in creating jobs for the many young people in the country. He said ICT ranks fourth as the fastest growing sector in the world.
"There is need to change the mindset as far as ICT is concerned from crowd sourcing to analytical and digital economy," Dr. Mshinda said.
He said Tanzanian universities have to be encouraged to start incubation programmes. The country had many potential innovators and these human resources needed to be tapped.
Dr. Mshinda said the country was trying to come up with an ecosystem where young innovators could be nurtured. Lack of enough money however, is hurting ICT development in Tanzania.
Dr Deidre Lillis, the Head of School, Computing, Dublin Institute of Technology said the development and nurturing of youthful talent in ICT could be vital for job creation in Tanzania and the rest of Africa.
She said that it was important for the country to nurture young innovators so that such expertise could be translated into job creation for the growing youth population.
"You don't need big equipment in ICT like that of agriculture and mining industries investments. You can have an ICT company of 15 people which can be able to compete globally because the application of peoples' skills can be able to generate jobs from around the globe" Dr Lillis said.
Dr. Lillis said education was a key resource and vocational training was important for ensuring that skills that would be required for the country's demand in ICT are passed on to the growing youth population.

Tanzania told to open up trade bottlenecks

Monday, 27 May 2013 07:02 Kenan Kalagho, kampala, UGANDA

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Tanzania has been told to open up for more trade and reduce the obstacles to domestic investment which are among the things holding back faster economic growth.
World Bank Country Director, Philippe Dongier said last week, if the country could look at the potential to increase trade with other regions around the globe, this could lead to more economic growth.
“We need to open more gates to the port from other countries to make sure that goods flourish both inside and outside the country,” Dongier said. He said this would benefit both small and larger businesses alike.
He was speaking in Dar es Salaam during the launch of the Third Tanzania Economic update.

Philippe Dongier, World Bank’s Country Director for Tanzania

According to the update authored by Jacques Morisset, the Lead Economist with the World Bank, Tanzania lost $2.6 billion in 2012 due to failure to revamp Dar es Salaam port.
The report shows that Dar port stands to lose business to other countries when these ports and railways become operational.
However, with its strategic location, Dar port remains a gateway for 90% of Tanzania’s trade clearing $15 billion of merchandise annually while at the same time providing vital access to other land locked countries. 
Emmanuel Mallya, the Chairman and CEO of the E.B Maritime Group said revamping of  Dar port needs to go hand in hand with construction of both a road and railway network.
“Revamping Dar port without improving the railway and road network in the country won’t do any good to the country’s economy. Goods need to move from the port to their destination,” Mallya said.
Mallya said Dar port handles cargo for a number of landlocked countries including Malawi, Zambia, and Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Eastern Democratic Republic Congo and improving the port alone without considering the mode of transporting these goods to its destination will be meaningless.
Dr Eva Sinare, who until recently was a member of the joint Finance Commission, a constitution body created to address Tanzania Union finance issues, and also a former board member of Capital Market and Securities authority said small and medium enterprises the most affected by the lack of infrastructure.
Dr. Sinare said it is important for the port to be connected to the points of production that would encourage small and medium enterprises to invest more in their businesses because they will be assured of transport.
She said it is important to encourage small and big investments in the country by making sure that policymakers go back to those who provide such services to consult them on their needs.

Tanzania pegs growth on farming research

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 13:18 Kenan Kalagho, 

East African Business Week, Kampala, UGANDA

The Director for IITA Eastern Africa Hub, Dr Victor Manyong with the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who is also the Goodwill Ambassador for IITA Africa and other dignitaries during the official opening of the research centre in Dar es Salaam. (Photo by Kenan Kalagho)

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA- President Jakaya Kikwete has said economic growth in most African countries hinges on increased agriculture production based on more scientific research.
This is because the majority of the people get their livelihood from farming.
He was speaking during the official opening of a new International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) research centre in Dar es Salaam last week.
“Tanzania is committed at supporting IITA in order to lift the majority population, who are farmers out of poverty,” Kikwete said and added, “ in recent years Tanzania will be contributing one percent of its capital income on agriculture research.”
He said there is need for African countries to make sure that they increase funding in research and science applications that will scale up production and lead to both food and political security in the region.
The IITA centre is to serve nine countries in East and Central Africa. The IITA is among the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions to hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
Kikwete said in the last few years there had been a decline per food capital due to low production of agriculture in Africa. He said a bigger capacity of researchers and students undergoing agricultural related work was needed.
Former Nigerian President Chief Olusegon Obasanjo, who is also the IITA Goodwill Ambassador for Africa, highlighted the costs of neglect.
Obasanjo said that in today’s world research is crucial for solving specific and complex challenges facing Sub-Saharan Africa that would uplift the majority of farmers in the region but also lead to food availability in the region.
He said food instability may have an impact on political stability and the social wellbeing of the people in the region if no effort is made to increase production by 2050.
Obasanjo said the widespread riots occasioned by spikes in food prices in 2007 and 2008 are signposts pointing to the dangers if crop output is not increased.
He said if Africa were to double its average cereal yield from one to two tonnes per hectare, this would lead to an extra 100 million tonnes a year. Enough to meet food demands in the region.
“Africa has energetic young people, the continent is reach in natural resources with about 60% of the world uncultivated arable land accounting to 733 million hectares” Obasanjo said.
He said this alone was enough to shift Africa from having a food deficit to becoming a major food surplus region.
He said last year alone the number of hungry people on the continent rose to 239 million, including 40% of the children under five years reportedly stunted by malnutrition.
Research has shown that doubling investment on research and development in Sub-Sahara Africa could lift an estimated 144 million people out of poverty, lead to job creation for the increasing youth population, save Africa from food import bills, create worth for farmers and ensure food security in the region.
“We must support our own development, and we must be committed to making a change to achieve that goal,”  Obasanjo said.
He said Nigeria is already showing an example by contributing $2 million annually to IITA agriculture research.

Tanzania farmers advised on technology

Monday, 06 May 2013 12:00 Kenan Kalagh, East African Business Week, Kampala, Uganda

ARUSHA, TANZANIA - Farmers around Arusha have been advised to use the available technology and opportunities in agriculture to boost the country’s economy and increase their household incomes.

(A scientist with Mikocheni Agriculture Research Institute shows participants on how cross pollination is conducted, Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
Dominick Ringo, the Executive Director of Research Community and Development Associates (RECODA), was recently explaining their project dubbed ‘Rural Initiative for Participatory Agriculture Transformation (RIPAT)’.
RECODA is taking the project to the farmers while Rockwool Foundation is providing the financial backing.
Rockwool is a Danish institution involved with numerous research projects around the world.
The Rockwool Foundation supports activities promoting alleviation of poverty and hunger through developing sustainable small scale farming and agri-businesses, small farmer groups with good governance, as well as micro financial initiatives which create the basics for economic growth.
RIPAT is aimed at building the capacity for small scale farmers at the village level. Ringo said the implementation of RIPAT agriculture projects started as pilot study in Arusha, northern Tanzania in 2003. He said they are trying to formulate an ‘open eye’ to farmers in the rural areas.
“We are conducting research on self-help, on how to improve agriculture and farming system to farmers in the rural areas” Ringo said.
He added that currently there were eight villages of Meru, Lengijave, Lemanyata, Ekenywa, Lokisito, Engolora, Lovilukuny and Oloitushula included in pilot study.
He said RECODA, wants to help farmers in the rural areas so that they can be able to utilize the resources they have for self- eliance that would later improve their living standards.
He said they were currently carrying out research on bridging the inland and lowland areas especially with regards to the rice growers which will also address poverty at household level.
“Effective use of land by farmers is needed to make sure that they use good farming techniques that include storage of water for irrigation, but also rearing of animals that could in-turn help them for manure,”  he said.
Ringo said researchers were already on trials for the inland rice so as to find out the rice drought resistant variety that can be distributed to farmers.
He said there was need for researchers and agriculture practitioners to make their findings easily adaptable for farmers in the fields. More than a thousand farmers are presently benefiting from RIPAT. He stressed that farmers needed to be taught how to access markets for their products, storage for their produce and also getting the right planting materials.