In Praise of Tanzanian Capitalism - The People should be Glad!

Mzee Mwanakijiji said:

The Guardian



Capitalism is deepening in the Tanzania job market, according to figures recently put out by Synovate, a research group, and the government says the development is in "the right direction."


A study put out this month by the research group shows that in the job market, only 12 per cent of Tanzanians are full time employed, 14 per cent are working on part time, while 17 per cent are self-employed. This suggests that the private sector is indeed taking over the commanding heights of the economy through small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).


The figures, quoted by Andrea Bohnstedt, an economic intelligence analyst and posted on Ratio, an online magazine, portrays Tanzania as gradually shifting in the capitalist direction and not otherwise.


The Minister for Labour and Youth Development, Prof Juma Kapuya told The Guardian that these figures show that the nation is moving in the right direction because the figures indicate that SMEs were being hatched in good numbers.


SMEs employ the most people in strong economies, Prof. Kapuya said, giving the example of Germany, where he found during one of his visits there that 80 per cent of the people holding jobs were employed by SMEs. Germany is Europe's strongest economies and the world's third.


What the nation needs to do at this juncture is to strengthen the SMEs, the minister said, by empowering them through micro-finance credit schemes and equipping them with organisational skills through training programmes.


And this, he added, was being done to enable them to grow to become huge corporate entities which will in turn employ more people.


In the meantime, the Ratio magazine web posting also portrays Tanzania's economic growth as bursting conservative estimates this year.


The economic intelligence report says the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has announced a target GDP growth rate for 2010 of 5.7 per cent, up from 5 per cent targeted in 2009, as the country begins to recover from global crisis fallout that depressed growth last year in the mining and tourism sectors.


But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts 6.2 per cent GDP growth for Tanzania in 2010. The fund's earlier forecast was a growth rate of 5.5 per cent, but it revised the figures upwards due to a stronger than anticipated recovery in the global economy and the government's fiscal stimulus plan.


The IMF also said inflation could fall to 8 per cent by June, down from February's 9.6 per cent. An unfavorable business environment has however been blamed for decreased investor interest in mining.


An external audit of Tanzania's Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Country Internal Assessment report says the country is declining on a number of indicators, including: doing business, starting a business, registering property, access to credit and protecting investors, the report says.


Agricultural and gold exports remained strong in 2009, nonetheless, which led in part to a balance of payments surplus for that year at USD429m. A decline in oil costs also helped narrow Tanzania's current account deficit in 2009 by 24 per cent.


The country has improved on trading across borders due to participation in the East African Community (EAC) integration. But auditors noted that many non-tariff barriers remain.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

My Take:
I'm not an economist.. but can somebody try to explain to me how can does corruption affect our economy because it seems to me that corruption has no effect WHATSOEVER when you look at all indexes of the economy.. what is the most rational explanation?

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Mzee Mwanakijiji said:

yaani wanajivunia matunda ya ubepari kuwa asilimia 12 ya wananchi wako fully employed!!. who the hell do we run the economy! with 88 percent of the people in employment that can not be considered as "full"?

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Nyani Ngabu said:

LMAO...so what is the unemloyment rate? 88%? Kwa wenzetu unemployment rate ikigonga double digits tu kasheshe.....

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Rev. Kishoka said:

By the way, if the number of people counted as having some sort of employement is less than 30% of population (mkulima is self employed by the way!), then what in the heck is the rest of 60% (10=/- marging of error) doing? will we claim that it is Wazee and Watoto (over 55 and under 16)?

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Mzee Mwanakijiji said:

I'm not an economist.. but can somebody try to explain to me how can does corruption affect our economy because it seems to me that corruption has no effect WHATSOEVER when you look at all indexes of the economy.. what is the most rational explanation?

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• Kwanini watz wengi wanasali kabla na baada ya kula? Implication yake kwenye mind/brain au family/society ni nini in real world?
• Hivi kweli kunakujituma? tunaelewa majukumu ya mtu binafsi na ya serikali?
• Wengi wenye ajira wamepitipia kwenye ushindani kupata hizo nafasi hasa kwenye puplic office?
• Kwanini vijana wengi wanakimbilia serikali kuliko private sector? hawana uhakika na performance yao? Ajira ya kudumu? posho nyingi? moyo wa kuitumikia jamii?
• Kwanini private sector wanalipa kodi ya marupurupu na posho ilhali serikalini kuanzia watunga sheria wetu hawaguswi?

Govt spending on allowances spirals

By Lucas Liganga
The government has raised its allowance budget to a staggering Sh216 billion this financial year, a new report shows.This is an increase of Sh45 billion on the Sh171 billion allowances dished out in 2008/9, according to the findings of Sikika, an NGO that seeks to ensure government accountability in the use of public resources for healthcare.

"This is by far the largest increase of all budget items surveyed," the NGO says in its report.

In its findings from allocations for seminars, allowances, purchase of vehicles and travel based on the 2008/9 and 2009/10 budgets, Sikika identifies the biggest spenders as the National Service, Tanzania Police Force and National Assembly.

The report seen by The Citizen says, for example, that the National Service allowance budget was almost doubled from Sh14.923 billion in 2008/9 to Sh28.568 billion in 2009/10, an increase of Sh13.644 billion.

The approved budget for allowances for the Police Force for 2008/09 was Sh21.775 billion, but the 2009/10 figure was Sh27.719 billion, an increase of Sh5.946 billion.

In 2008/9, Parliament approved Sh21.373 billion as allowances for the Bunge Office, and this figure shot up to Sh26.893 billion in the 2009/10 estimates, an increase of Sh5.520 billion.

"Sikika focused on these allocations because we believe that if the government reduces the budget for such items (which benefit relatively few people), it can reallocate these funds to the provision of essential social services, such as health and education," the report says.

While the budget for domestic travel dropped by Sh21 billion in the 2009/10 estimates, the smaller budget for international travel increased by 40 per cent from Sh31 billion in 2008/9 to Sh43 billion.

At the same time, the budget for fuel, oil and lubricants increased by 10 per cent from Sh51 billion in 2008/09 to Sh56 billion, the report says, naming the biggest spenders as the Police Force, Ministry of Defence and National Service and Prisons Department.

The report notes that these revelations come in the wake of concern about government extravagance, particularly in seminars and vehicle purchases, raised recently by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda.

Last year, Mr Pinda announced drastic measures to reduce government expenditure on workshops and seminars, and directed that all ministries and regions must get clearance from his office before organising seminars and workshops.

Money to be saved would be channelled to programmes and projects that directly benefited Tanzanians, particularly those in rural areas, he said.

The report says low salaries and high allowance incentives have contributed to making travel and seminars more desirable among public servants.

"When allowances are only loosely related to actual costs incurred and when they are highly relative to basic salaries, they become an incentive instead of a reimbursement," the report says, adding:

"And when allowances become an incentive, the pursuit of allowances is likely to induce and reward behaviour that is counterproductive to the provision of quality services by public servants."

The report recommends that budget data for seminars needs to be broken down to enable the public to hold the Prime Minister to account over his commitment to reduce expenditure in this area.

The report says unnecessary expenditure in the form of allowances is just part of financial impropriety that inflates the national budget, and cites as an example the revelation by the Controller and Auditor General that Sh326 million were paid to ghost workers by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare alone in 2007/8.

The report says the government should match its words with action in the 2010/11 Budget by drastically reducing expenditure attributed to seminars, travel, allowances, hospitality, fuel and vehicle purchases.

It also recommends reallocation of the allowance budget to raise the salaries of lower and middle-level civil servants, saying this would, in turn, help to improve the provision of public services such as healthcare and education.

The report also highlights the need to seek alternative training opportunities instead of relying on workshops and seminars that target a small number of individuals at a high cost and with limited impact.

Reacting to the report yesterday, the chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr John Cheyo, said controlling allowance over-expenditure was proving difficult because civil servants with low salaries depended on the stipends to supplement their wages.

He said the most effective solution was to handsomely increase civil servants' salaries and lower taxes levied on the wages.

"It will be useless if the government raises salaries and at the same time imposes heavy taxes on them," Mr Cheyo told The Citizen by telephone.

Neither the Finance and Economic Affairs minister, Mr Mustafa Mkulo, nor his two deputies were immediately available for comment yesterday.

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capitalism is deepening in the tanzania job market, ................ Says the development is in “the right direction.”

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i'm not an economist.. But can somebody try to explain to me how can does corruption affect our economy because it seems to me that corruption has no effect whatsoever when you look at all indexes of the economy.. What is the most rational explanation?

Click to expand...

magee said:

says who..........synovate and the government............what do you expect them to say???
Right direction........mmh,madeni,njaa,ufisadi,uadilifu sifuri,tume isiyo huru ya uchaguzi,bilioni 40 zitakazoleta uwiano hasi kwenye uwanja wa mapambano,rushwa................


corruption brings about unequal play between those trying to eradicate poverty in a state that is not liberal like ours,mfano rahisi wawekezaji wandani na wa nje,angalia wachimbaji madini wadogo na wakubwa.corruption inasababisha hata policy makers watengeneze sera kulingana na matakwa ya mwenye kutoa.
Muheshimiwa sana yuko pale na atakuwepo na umasikini utaendelea as long as hiyo 40b wataita.
Umasikini utaisha????rushawa haina impact kwenye uchumi???this thing is so wide...............

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SMEs employ the most people in strong economies, Prof. Kapuya said, giving the example of Germany, where he found during one of his visits there that 80 per cent of the people holding jobs were employed by SMEs. Germany is Europe’s strongest economies and the world’s third.

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