Tarime district council benefits from royalty

In order to ensure that the royalty is paid by mining companies which operates nearest to the local community, the government has been very strict to see this is effected as it is in the overall work schedules. Tarime district is among the districts in the country which benefits from these money paid by mining investment companies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. In view of this on Friday last week, The Nortrh Mara Gold Mine has handed over its latest service levy amounting to 1,253,396,585.34 (nearly 1.3 billion shillings) to Tarime District Council. North Mara Gold Mine Acting General Manager, Mr Richard Ojendo, handed the service levy payment to the Tarime District officials during a brief event officiated by Tarime District Commissioner (DC), Mr Glorious Luoga on Friday morning. Mr Jendo said the service levy which represents 0.3 per cent of the gold mine’s turn over covers July-December, last year. “We are happy to be given this opportunity to hand over this service levy today. Our focus is now on improving relationship, communication and building trust,” Mr Ojendo who is also the mine’s Sustainable Communities Manager said in part of his brief handing over remarks. The Acting GM said that the gold mine plans to establish a business training centre aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in the surrounding villages this year. In addition to that, he said the mine would also set up a demonstration farm that would be used to sensitize local people to embark on sustainable best farming practices in an effort to boost their income. The Tarime DC welcomed the service levy paid by the miner, saying that it will play a great role in improving social services especially in areas of water supply and health service delivery. He used the opportunity to direct relevant officials in Tarime to close businesses of all traders operating in the area without paying service levy, emphasizing that payment of service levy and other taxes is imperative for the national development. North Mara Gold Mine is the largest service levy payer in Tarime District Council. Consequently, billion of shillings being disbursed by the mine as service levy from time to time is making impact on the lives of people in the area through improvement of social services. The gold mine is operated by Acacia mining. Besides the service levy, the mining company has also been investing heavily on local development as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), with provision of social services getting top priority.

Magufuli ceases plans of allocating structures built close to Mwanza airport

In every development plans put in place especially when constructing roads or railways, people’s structure which h are closer normally are removed to pave trghe way for the construction to take on. But iut has become a difficult task in Mwanza whereby President Joihn Magufuili has promised to solve problems that cripples the efficiency of Mwanza Airport, but categorically insisted that his government cannot hastily order 1,900 households to vacate the area over alleged encroachment. The Head of State made his stand yesterday when he arrived at the airport on his way to Chato, in Geita Region, for a brief stay before heading back to Dar es Salaam after attending the EAC 19th Heads of State Summit in Uganda. Dr Magufuli who was received at the airport by Mwanza Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr John Mongella, Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Ms Angelina Mabulla and Mwanza CCM Regional Chairman , Mr Antony Diallo, said he was waiting for a report from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development before making the final decision on the conflict pitting the residents and the airport authority. 

President John Magufuli is welcomed upon his arrival at Mwanza Airport from Kampala-Uganda where he went to attend the 19th EAC summit of Heads of State which ended on Thursday last week.

  on his arr“I am waiting for the report from the ministry about the residents who ‘invaded’ Mwanza Airport area, but in this matter the government cannot rush to remove more than 1,900 households, instead, it will look for the best way to deal with it,” President Magufuli said.“Fortunately, the Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements is here. Work on this challenge and give me the report,” the President told Ms Mabula. However, Dr Magufuli ordered the residents to refrain from carrying out any kind of development on the area embroiled in the conflict, as their fate was being worked out by the government. Earlier on, Mwanza Airport workers presented to the Head of State a number of challenges crippling the efficiency of the gateway, including encroachment of the area by 1,900 households, lack of a waiting lounge and a fence. Also in the list included the decision by aircrafts to avoid Mwanza Airport in transporting fish fillet from Mwanza to the international market, due to an increase in airport taxes charged on cargo planes. According to them, the aircrafts have been using airports in neighbouring countries for such missions, denying the government substantial revenue. However, the workers did not mention the names of such airports in the neighbouring countries through which the fish fillet cargo have been finding their way to the international market. According to the President, all other issues presented to him would be addressed, including quickly working on the airport charges that caused cargo planes to avoid Mwanza Airport. He said the aim was to enable the airport attract business which, in return, would generate revenue for the government. He also said the government will work on other requirements, including the construction of the waiting lounge and the fence around the airport area to grant it international standards

Leopards in a national park have no power to hunt

There is a saying in Swahili word which goes like this, “Simba akiishiwa hula majani” which literally means that once a lion is confiscated resort to eating vegetation. The same thing is envisaged at Serengeti national park whereby leopards now hunt for themselves in order to survive. It is amazing to hear that, Leopards in Serengeti have started to hunt and eat one another in emerging type of beast cannibalism among the ferocious cats prowling the country’s second largest national park. The Chief Conservator at Serengeti National Park, Mr William Mwakilema, has confirmed the occurrence, saying it was not very strange for wild beasts to turn upon each other from the same family when it comes to feeding. “It may not sound common but it does occur albeit occasionally,” said Mr Mwakilema when contacted over reports of leopards turning against each other in the so-called ‘endless plains.’ Reports of Serengeti Leopards ‘eating each other,’ went viral on social media, globally, as well as the ‘National Geographic,’ when some visitors to Tanzania filmed live episodes of one of the large cats tearing and chewing the flesh from another leopard perched onto a tree. The video clips, that also got snatched up by the National Geographic, happen to include voices of local drivers and tour guides speaking in Kiswahili, over radio calls, summoning other guides to drive over to the site so that their respective visitors could also witness the spectacular happening in Serengeti. 

The video was taken by a scientist on his tour of Serengeti during honeymoon excursion and stumbled upon the incident. He managed to film the rather rare, grisly sight: An adult male leopard cannibalising another juvenile male leopard, some minutes after the kill. “It was once-in-a-lifetime event to witness, for sure,” says Dr Tanner Harvey, a Ph.D. student specialising in snake venom studies at the University of Northern Colorado in the United States. Dr Harvey’s work often takes him into the wild, but he stated that his recent trip to Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania’s Northern Tourism Circuit was done with his wife, Ms Kathy Yang and it ‘was strictly personal.’ In Serengeti, the leopards usually prefer to stroll along river banks and in the denser parts of the woodlands. The leopards often lounge and nap in large trees with large sloping stems. The Serengeti leopards tend to drag their hunted preys back and up into a convenient tree for protection; presumably from lions, hyenas and other carnivores that might steal their food. It is estimated that there could be more than 1,000 leopards in Serengeti. Other major predators in the endless plains include 4,000 lions, 225 cheetahs, 3,500 spotted hyenas and 300 wild dogs. And with more than 3 million preys, in form of Zebras, wildebeests and gazelles, experts believe the predators in the Serengeti do have more than their fair share of food sources to resort into eating one another.

ICTs important for Africa’s development initiatives

Without Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Africa cannot make its own development programs. ICT has become an important tool for the entire development in Africa’s continent. The innovations which are coming up in today’s world have manifested itself in such a manner that governments take the necessary steps for guidance towards development. In view of this, reforms are needed in order to cope with the national science, technology and innovation policies so as to enhance development that drives progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is crucial. According to the study, Africa Beyond 2030: Leveraging Science and Innovation to Secure SDGs, is based on extensive literature review, surveys and interviews with scientists, policymakers and development partners between 2016 and 2017. It further details specific policy measures that countries must take individually and collectively to leverage Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to achieve the SDGs. In the past, STI policies have been criticised for short changing monitoring and evaluation frameworks and budgets and failing to incorporate national strategies on sustainable development. These may have resulted in weak government capacity and poor public understanding and ownership. The new study calls for harnessing STI to achieve SDGs and requires policy reform supported by strong budgets, skilled personnel and a legislative monitoring and evaluation component to assess impact. Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Professor Nelson Torto, said there was need to bring science and technology to bear on sustainable development priorities to ensure a long term and intergenerational solution driven agenda for eradicating poverty and improving lives of African people. Prof Torto said the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. The 17 SDGs are based on ending poverty, promoting equality and equitable access to global resources and tackling climate change. The AAS’ Policy and Strategy Manager, Evelyn Namubiru- Mwaura, said the existence of the STI policies demonstrate a political will to advance the sector there, it also shows a dual commitment to achieve SDGs.

TPSF highlights motives for industrialization drive in Tanzania

For Tanzania to achieve its industrialisation drive, it needs to capitalise on the alternative means of financing, instead of relying on commercial banks for the growth of the sector come 2025. The Executive Director of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), Mr Godfrey Simbeye, disclosed this at a forum on the Role of Financial Institutions in Promoting Industrialisation in Tanzania organised by Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy (MNMA) in Dar es Salaam, yesterday. “If we depend on commercial banks to finance industrialisation in the country, it will take us quite some time to achieve the anticipated goal... like other countries, Tanzania should device a plan to have in place an industrial development bank to cater for the purpose,” said Mr Simbeye. According to Mr Simbeye, statistics show that out of 16.3trl/- dished out as credit by commercial banks to private sector, it’s only 9.8 per cent that goes to the manufacturing industry, with trade and personal loans topping the list. He pointed further that of the 49,245 industries existing in the country - 1,322 are large establishments and the majority 47, 921 comprise of micro, small and medium enterprises. These figures demonstrate a problem in the area of financing. He, however, cited among challenges that hinder growth of industrial economy to include protection of products produced within the country. “As a focused country intending to promote its industrial economy, the agenda should be placed as a national building project with its own financing system like that of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Project. And in order to generate more financing in the sector, we should formulate policies aiming to protect goods produced within the country,” he noted. The Chairman of the Tanzania Banking Association, Dr Charles Kimei, was also of the view that the government needs to focus on sector priority to achieve its goals. Dr Kimei revealed some of the drivers for financing industrialisation include profitability, physical incentives, such as collaterals, legal and regulatory frameworks, among others. “We can all agree that there is no person who will put money where there is no money, so it’s only natural that there is a certain guarantee scheme,” he observed. He said that the only reliable solution is the establishment of an industrial development bank, considering that money being lent by commercial banks is generated from short term sources, such as saving accounts and the like. He further pointed out that with the above reasons; it becomes difficult for commercial banks to give loans on long term basis. On her part, the Deputy Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment, Eng Stella Manyanya, noted the government’s commitment to promote industrialisation in the country. She observed that among challenges facing people include capital and proper business knowledge. She called on financial institutions to provide knowledge before issuing out loans