Cicero
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 20, 2016
- 2,924
- 3,073
The article that piqued my interest, was one asking the question if Tanzania is the Switzerland of Africa? It’s an interesting article, written by a political science professor from LaGrange College in Georgia and his opening paragraph made me read on. “The East African country of Tanzania has long been considered an island of stability where chaos appears to reign across the continent, and even its region of East Africa.”
I decided then to do some of my own research to see if I could validate his thesis and also because of all the bad news coming out of that continent. A government trying to do the right thing by its people should be highlighted because it is a rarity, not just in Africa but globally.
The recent discovery of natural gas has given a boost to the strategic importance of the country and will no doubt transform the economy, from one based heavily on agriculture, which contributors about 25% of the GDP. By recent estimates the natural gas reserves are in the range of between 25 and 30 trillion cubic feet, which if converted, would be equivalent to 10 billion barrels of oil.
The one thing that Tanzania needs to do though, is to manage the resources efficiently and effectively. This I believe will happen under the administration of the new president, John Magafuli, who was elected on the 29 of October 2015 with 58% of the vote. He is known to be a devout Catholic and corruption free and ran on a message of stamping out corruption.
He has also earned himself the nickname ‘bulldozer’ for his determination to build roads across the country. He is committed to improving the education standards and development of Tanzania’s natural resources to benefit the population.
The Tanzanian GDP for the last quarter of 2015 grew at a rate of 7.1% due to substantial increases in defense, communication, financial, and insurance sectors. Recently, according to Bloomberg, the government has been advocating insurance companies to merge in order to strengthen the industry, so that they can adequately service the upcoming boom in the energy sector. To that end, Lloyds of London has sought a license to operate in Tanzania.
The Dar es Salaam stock market benchmark index (DARSDSEI) has a year to date return of 5.28%, with standouts being the Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC:TZ), Swissport Tanzania (SWIS:TZ), and National Microfinance Bank (NMB:TZ). With the recent discovery of natural gas and political stability in the country, Tanzania seems to have a very promising future, and as far as being called the Switzerland of Africa, I will have to leave that for others to decide.
I decided then to do some of my own research to see if I could validate his thesis and also because of all the bad news coming out of that continent. A government trying to do the right thing by its people should be highlighted because it is a rarity, not just in Africa but globally.
The recent discovery of natural gas has given a boost to the strategic importance of the country and will no doubt transform the economy, from one based heavily on agriculture, which contributors about 25% of the GDP. By recent estimates the natural gas reserves are in the range of between 25 and 30 trillion cubic feet, which if converted, would be equivalent to 10 billion barrels of oil.
The one thing that Tanzania needs to do though, is to manage the resources efficiently and effectively. This I believe will happen under the administration of the new president, John Magafuli, who was elected on the 29 of October 2015 with 58% of the vote. He is known to be a devout Catholic and corruption free and ran on a message of stamping out corruption.
He has also earned himself the nickname ‘bulldozer’ for his determination to build roads across the country. He is committed to improving the education standards and development of Tanzania’s natural resources to benefit the population.
The Tanzanian GDP for the last quarter of 2015 grew at a rate of 7.1% due to substantial increases in defense, communication, financial, and insurance sectors. Recently, according to Bloomberg, the government has been advocating insurance companies to merge in order to strengthen the industry, so that they can adequately service the upcoming boom in the energy sector. To that end, Lloyds of London has sought a license to operate in Tanzania.
The Dar es Salaam stock market benchmark index (DARSDSEI) has a year to date return of 5.28%, with standouts being the Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC:TZ), Swissport Tanzania (SWIS:TZ), and National Microfinance Bank (NMB:TZ). With the recent discovery of natural gas and political stability in the country, Tanzania seems to have a very promising future, and as far as being called the Switzerland of Africa, I will have to leave that for others to decide.
