Food prices remain high on dry season regional demand

 East African Business Week

Food prices remain high on dry season regional demand

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Food prices in Dar es Salaam continued to rise despite the end of the festive season.
A random survey made last week by East African Business Week at the city's main market of Kariakoo in Dar es Salaam, revealed that there has been a sharp increase in prices of food produce since the end of the festive season. The survey showed that the best rice, which during the just ended season was being sold at TShs 2,100 (US$1.35) a kilogramme was now hovering around TShs 2,500 (US$1.59) a kg, whereas the lower grade rice that was previously sold at TShs 1,900 (US$1.22) a kg is now selling at TShs 2,200(US$1.35) a kg.

(A customer weighs his options at one of the markets in dar es Salaam. (Photo by Kenan Kalagho)

There has been an increase in prices of commodities such as beans, spices, maize flour, meat and other essentials.
The prices of beef at many Dar es Salaam  butcheries also have shot up from the previous TSh 6,000 (US$3.87) during the festive season to TShs7,000 (US$ 4.45) a kg where as in other places like Buguruni to the outskirts of the city the price of beef has relatively gone down to the previous TShs 5,000 (US$ 3.18) a kg.
The price of maize flour on the other hand has gone up from the previous TShs 800 (US$0.50) a kilo to TShs 1,200 (US$0.76).
Mr Hamisi Mzee, a trader at the Dar es Salaam Kariakoo main market says the prices of food are being driven mainly by the high costs of living in terms of house rent and fuel as well as the country's bad economic shape.
"The costs of fuel and transporting these produce to Dar es Salaam is expensive and this leads us to increase prices as well, says Mzee.  "Even in the houses we are staying in the rent has gone up so high so that you rarely find a room below TShs 30,000  (US$19.10) a month.”
Speaking in Dar es Salaam last week, the Minister of State in the Presidents office,  Civil Society Relations and Co-ordination, Mr Steven  Wassira, said the prices of food in Tanzania were  a result of the increased fuel prices and the cost involved in transporting them to their markets.
"The prices of fuel are very high and these produce needs to be transported from their place of produce to find customers in the cities" the minister said. He said Tanzanians should also know that neighbouring countries like Kenya, Sudan, and Somalia which have been experiencing long droughts have driven the prices of food in Tanzania as well.
Wassira said Tanzania should produce more food in order to get the surplus which will have a positive effect in reducing the escalating of food prices in the country.
"As much as we need investment in agriculture sector, we need to focus on providing  support to Tanzanians so that they move out from the hand hoe system of agriculture to a modern large farming technology which will allow them to produce more food for business benefits," Wassira said.
Wassira noted other challenges like poor infrastructure that hinder the produce from reaching the market. "Tanzania produces more food in Rukwa, Kagera and Kigoma but there are no good roads that connect such places so that food produce can be transported to Dar es Salaam and or across other regions of the country."

E-cargo tracking system starts in Tanzania

(Goods on transit, Dar has launched ECTS in order to protect cargo on transit and ensure its safety Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
EAST AFRICAN BUSINESS WEEK

Monday, 23 July 2012 11:43 Kenan Kalagho 

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA-The much awaited Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) that is aimed at ensuring and monitoring the movements and safety of cargo started operations on July 1 this year after a three months trial.
Speaking exclusively to East African Business Week in Dar es Salaam last week the Acting Director-Taxpayers Service Mr. Allan Kiula said that ECTS, a system which is being overseen by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has been on trial in order to prove its capability and safety of consignments in Tanzania.
He said the ECTS was introduced after  many complaints about the delays and check-points experiences being undergone by traders in delaying their transit consignments in the country.
"We have had specific time of traders carrying these consignments to reach these check points, failing which a fine was imposed on such traders considering also that there were delays in documents clearance in these checkpoints which were delaying both the traders time and affecting their businesses," Mr. Kiula said.
He said with the effective and smooth operation of ECTS from July 1 this year, will mean that consignments will be delivered on time while the security of such consignments will also be improved.
Mr. Kiula noted however when asked about the high taxes some industries in Tanzania are complaining off as one of the reasons making Tanzania  unfriendly to business in the region, said claims were due to a wrong perception being planted in the minds of some business men and investors which needs to be reversed.
He said the government of Tanzania was trying the best to make sure that it creates an environment that will be conducive to business people especially investors coming in to invest in the country by making reduction of VAT from the previous 20% to the current 18% which is what other EA member states charge with an exception of Kenya which has a 16% VAT.

East Africa: Region's Poverty Levels Down

East African Business Week (Kampala)

Email Print Share

By Kenan Kalagho, 9 July 2012

(The majority of the East African population live under $1 a day Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
Dar es Salaam — East African Community (EAC) partner states have shown significant improvements in reducing poverty according to the recent Country and Policy Institutional Assessment (CPIA) review.
The World Bank review on policies and institutions in Africa showed an improved policy environment for growth and poverty reduction in the East African region and 13 other Sub Saharan Africa countries (SSA).
The report showed that Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda with an overall average score of 3.8 on the CPIA report where 4.2 was scored the highest for Kenya and Uganda on Economic Management, while Rwanda scored 4.0 on policies for social inclusion and equity.
Tanzania fourth in the CPIA review with an overall average CPIA score of 3.7 where it showed the highest improvements on Economic Management with a 4.2 score and Burundi scoring the lowest points of 3.1 in the CPIA report with the highest being 3.4 on policies for social change and inclusion and equity.
The report said the EAC countries have performed poorly and attained the lowest score on Public Sector Management and Institution where Tanzania and Kenya both scored 3.3, with Uganda scoring 3.2 while 3.6 and 2.2 was scored for Rwanda and Burundi respectively.
The report that was mainly focused on the four cluster components on Economic Management, Structural policies, Policies for Social Inclusion and Equity and Public Sector Management and Institutions where countries performance is rated on a scale ranging between one and six being the highest.
The latest World Bank review of policies and institutions in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) titled, "Country Policy and Institutional Assessment" (CPIA) unveiled recently to East African Business Week also showed that for first time in 2011, there has been a 1% decrease on poverty to most of the African countries with Rwanda recording a 12% decrease in five consecutive years.
Speaking via a video conference from France, the Chief Economist with the World Bank for Africa, Mr. Shantayanan Devarajan, said it was important to see the economic trend of African poorest countries and compare their economic trend with the developed one.
Devarajan said while most African countries have performed well in the CPIA report that assess the country's policy and institutions framework for fostering poverty reduction, sustainable growth , it was important for the respective countries to use the CPIA report effectively to be on track on policies with poor performance.
The World Bank has for the past three years focused on conducting the CPIA forums in Tanzania, Rwanda and other countries with an aim of assessing the performance of government policies in most poor countries in Africa, he said.
He noted that the CPIA forums that bring together civil societies, academicians, public sectors, researchers as well as different stake holders is important for African countries as that helps to act as a tool to such African countries to be accountable in their reforms and help monitor their country's progress and benchmark it, against progress in their countries.
The economist said the report showed that most African countries have experienced the weakest score in government structural policies among the 16 key development indicators which have been clustered into four areas where countries are rated their performance on scale ranging between 1 to 6 being the highest.
The 13 of the continents poorest countries in Africa that showed an improved policy environment for growth and poverty reduction includes Comoros, Congo Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia.
The list also includes Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Togo Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Every year the World Bank's country teams and sector experts assess the quality of International Development Association (IDA) countries' policy and institutional framework where the CPIA has been measuring and tracking the strength of policies institutions in IDA-eligible countries since 1980 and releasing that information since 2006 and the information used to inform IDA's allocation of resources to poor countries and in research but also help monitor governments progress and benchmark it against progress in other countries.

Tanzania: Info On Capital Markets Vital

  Info on capital market vital

By Kenan Kalagho, 1 July 2012

East African Business WeeK

Dar es Salaam — Improved disclosure of information on capital markets is one of the few sustainable means of attracting liquidity to capital markets without sacrificing stability and sustainability, an expert has said.

(Prof Barry Cooper Deputy President of ACCA says there is need to ensure thet emerging capital markets play a role in global economy by lowering the costs of capital .Photo by Kenan Kalagho)

Speaking during the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) meeting in Dar es Salaam last week, the Deputy President of ACCA Prof Barry Cooper said that there was need for disclosure of information on capital markets especially in emerging and frontier economies like Tanzania if the capital market is to play a role in the development of the country.
Cooper said capital markets in Tanzania and Africa at large allow both large and small firms to source funds more cheaply and reliably than it would be if such firms were not listed on the stock markets.
He said there was need for access to reliable information which largely depended on the skills of professional accountants if the role of capital markets in the economy was to be realized.
According to him, ACCA was focused on creating relationships with local authorities in the respective countries where they feel their presence in Africa is to ensure that the public is well informed on financial issues especially markets with complex structures.
He added that these complexities in market structures raised a need for increasingly sophisticated financial management leading to a need for transformation of the finance function to play a more central role in governance, risk compliance alongside financial reporting and management accounting.
The Manager, Research and Market Development at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) Mr Mohamed Kailwa said there was need to sensitize the public and local firms on the benefits of listing their firms as currently only 17 firms have been listed since its inception.
He said listing firms with the capital markets would not only improve companies' ability to access capital but also improve companies' image amongst supplies, customers, staff and banks which in turn attract investors and investments.

  He said that the DSE would soon establish an alternative market segment to cater for SMEs known as EGM .

Tanzania lacks project management board

East African Business Week

Sunday, 01 July 2012 18:10 Kenan Kalagho

 

 (Managing Director of Tanzania Institute of Project Management, Mr Lwitiko Mwalukasa Photo By Kenan Kalagho)

Tanzania has for long time experienced fewer numbers of expatriates in the field of Project Management that has led most contracts to be either delayed, not being completed in time or losing the value for money. The East African Business Week, KENAN KALAGHO spoke with the Managing Director of Tanzania Institute of Project Management, Mr Lwitiko Mwalukasa to know among others, what the country can benefit from his institution of having professional Project Managers. Here are excerpts:

Qn. What prompted you to open up this institution in Tanzania?

Ans. I launched this institute because I wanted people and especially professionals to know their responsibilities and that it was important to meet the public expectations of ensuring that the quality of work is observed, time for the project is met and that there is a scope of the work as well as cost effective in either assignments and contracts they are undertaking in their capacity of being project management professionals.

Qn. I s your institution accredited?

Ans. Our institution is registered with the National Accreditation Council of Tanzania (NACTE). I realized that the country lacks the board to regulate project managers and this prolonged the registration for our institution because the curricular for the courses were lacking. However with the contacts of different universities around the world we managed to obtain global standards curricular of project management and we were able to secure the registration.

Qn. What are the basic qualifications for admission to your institution?

Ans. Project management is not an independent profession. In most cases it requires someone to have his or her own profession so that he/she integrates it with project management in order to perform well in a specified job. For instance we have engineers who might be managing a big project but without knowledge in Project Management. This might lead the project ending up without beating the time deadline which leads to increase in costs. However we admit from form four leavers. 

Qn. Of what benefit is Project Management to gradaunds?

Ans. It is important to understand that once we have Project Management professional in different fields, that will mean having professionals with responsibility. It is with a professional project manager that the public can be able to build their confidence and expect the quality of work that will beat the deadline as per the scheduled time frame.

Qn. What will be the benefit of this program to the country?

Ans. Any country with professional project personnel will mean creating opportunities in terms of outcome, thus projects will be attained at the right time by considering both the quality, scope, cost effectiveness  and time frame and therefore bringing about change and development the public expects.

Qn. What do you think makes most companies in Tanzania fail to compete on the global market?

Ans. Tanzanian companies are failing to compete on the global market because we haven't invested much in research developments which aims at meeting the demands for customers and consumers of our products. Thus in order for Tanzanians companies to compete on the world market, there is need for them to reconsider, time, quality cost effective and scope of their performances most so that the company is managed to success.

Freighters fault new inspection system

   

East African Business Week

Sunday, 01 July 2012 18:17 Kenan Kalagho & Milkah Nducu

DAR ES SALAAM -TANZANIA-Traders in the country have faulted the recently introduced Pre-shipment Verification of Conformity to Standard system of goods inspection (PVoC) saying such a system was killing employment in the country and leading to high expenses to local traders.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam during a workshop organized by Tanzania Bureau of Standards with its stakeholders on the "Awareness session on PVoC" the President of Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFA) Mr Steven Matunga  said the country needs to come up with its own ways on controlling counterfeit and substandard products entering the local market.
He said it was high time the country stopped borrowing systems in other countries because that did not mean that such systems can work best in the country.

(Goods on transit, traders has faulted the new system on PVoC claiming it is a burden to them due to the increased expenses involved Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
"There are projects Tanzania as a country needed to launch so that other nations can learn from us instead of borrowing these systems from other countries all the time. When is the country going to be innovative so that others can learn from us?" Mr Matunga wondered
Matunga said the three companies of Intertek,  SGS and Bureau Veritas which won the tenders of conducting PVoC in the respective countries of importation like China, India, Dubai Japan and the UK had expired licences in the country.
He said there was Tanzania Bureau of Standards and Fair competition Commission government entities who could do the job well if the government wanted to get serious on the quality and standards of goods entering the country as that could mean creating jobs instead of exporting them.
"Why should we give these jobs to foreign companies and export these jobs oversees' while our citizens lack opportunities for jobs," Mr Matunga queried.
He advised TBS to look on the best ways of ensuring that the standard of goods entering the Tanzania market is reached and those being locally manufactured by ensuring that they go to places of manufacturing instead of waiting for such goods to reach the market.
Different stakeholders on the workshop claimed that they were facing very high costs on goods inspection because most of them were small traders buying from different manufacturers.
"We buy these goods from different manufacturers and we are charged $250 on every receipt we present to inspection companies which in turn leads to inflation of prices of goods to consumers", one of the traders lamented.
The TBS Director of Quality Management Ms Kwezia Mbwambo said the PVoC system was introduced after the former Destination Inspection (DS) which is still in use had failed to control the problem of both counterfeit and sub-standards of goods and protect the local market from n counterfeit goods which were cheap but killing the local market.
Mbwambo said  Tanzania was lacking equipment to detect the standard of goods that enters the country through the use of Destination Inspection and or PVoC system which in turn leads to high costs in destroying these sub-standard products but also leads to pollution.
"We realized that some of the used vehicles being shipped to the country could not last for long and therefore instituted this system in order to stop Tanzania from becoming a dumping place". Mbwambo said.
She said that there were companies in Dubai, Japan and the United Kingdom licensed with assessing the quality of motor vehicles entering Tanzania market a thing which she said was important to protect both the buyers' health and their safety as well.
She however noted that they were discussion with the government to see on how vehicles entering through Zanzibar can also be included in the PVoC system before entering Tanzania mainland.
Early this year during an interview with the East African Business Week, the Confederation of Tanzania Industries Director of Policy and Advocacy Mr. Hussein Kamote noted that there was need for the government to assess and control the influx of used vehicles entering Tanzania market in order to halt the country from becoming a dumping place.
Kamote cautioned that such used cars could be unwanted types in the countries of manufacturer in other words cars that could sooner or later become scrap due to the new brands that flood their local markets making it unnecessary for owners of older models to keep aged vehicles.

Absence of EA railway hampering trade, growth

  

East African Business Week.

Sunday, 01 July 2012 17:57 Kenan Kalagho

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA-The East Africa partner states will realize improvement in their economy and increase trading within the region if infrastructure in the region is given the needed attention.
Speaking during the 3rd East and Central Africa roads and rail summit in Dar es Salaam last week, the Deputy Minister for Works, Mr. Charles Tibeza, said there was need for the regional block to improve the interconnection of both rail and road infrastructure in order to advance trade and the economy in the respective countries.
Tibeza said the rail and road networks were crucial in the region if the bloc was to move forward into attaining the required trade and economic growth both as a country and to its citizen as well.
"Effective and efficiency of roads and rail infrastructure facilitate trade in countries be it in the developed and or developing countries," the deputy minister said.
He noted that there was need to revamp the rail network in the East African region that dates back to colonial period in order to make it capable to transport more wagons and goods.
"The dilapidated rail network in the region is a result of lack of investment in the rail transportation system that needs to be looked upon" Tibeza said.
The rail and road 2012 summit brought together stake holders from around the world including both in the rail and road to discuss both the investments in road and rail infrastructure system and see on how good infrastructure can play its role in improving the economy of the regional countries and beyond.
The deputy minister noted that there has been the abandonment to branches of the rail networks in the region due to lack of capital and that revamping the same would mean easing the cost of transportation in the region.
The minister also noted that Tanzania Zambia Railway (TAZARA) had already set $8.5 million with the help of the Chinese government to conduct a visibility study aimed at making it competitive within the region.
He said that with the regional block moving towards a common market it was important for the region to focus much on projects that would be aimed at improving the whole regional blocs.
"We should think of wider connectivity that should be fast tracked within the region in order to open up development to the wider great lakes region," Tibeza said.
He noted that Tanzania's geographical position has the potential of agriculture, mining and tourism which could stand at a better opportunity if all the eight countries bordering it enjoyed good infrastructure.
He urged the private sector to come in and help the government to make sure that infrastructure in the region is given the needed priority as it was the key to attaining the economic development.
The Managing Director of TAZARA, Mr. Akashambatwa  Lewanika said that the TAZARA would soon overcome the hand to mouth custom and lay its foundation so as to become both sustainable and consistent in order to recapitalize itself.
Mr. Lewanika said there has been a problem on how to find finances for running the corporation in order to transform it from a corporate business between two countries to a business oriented entity that may include share holding.