Tanzania Government to spend about 610 billion on development programs

Tanzania Government has unveiled its 2020/21 development plan, which seeks to spend about 610 billion on the implementation of 24 development programs and 53 projects, according to a news report by Tanzania Daily News.

Minister for Finance and Planning, Mohamed Ramia Abdiwawa told the House of Representatives on Monday that the government envisioned investing 609.99 billion in the next fiscal year, a 5.7 percent increase from the current year's 577.02billion.

Moving the 2020 Economic Outlook and Development Plan for the 2020/21 fiscal year, Abdiwawa said the Revolutionary Government would cover 32.35 percent of the development budget and development partners the remaining 67.65 percent.

 He said 197.33bnillion would come from the government's own sources, while the development partners would inject 412.66 billion (72.16 billion and 340.5 billion as grants and loans respectively).

The minister said Zanzibar's economy grew by seven percent last year, far better than the global and East African economies' rates of 2.9 and five percent, respectively, in 2019. He said the GDP grew to a 3,078 billion last year from 2,874 billion in 2018.

The minister attributed the impressive economic growth to a 3.4 percent increase in tourists from 520,809 in 2018 to 538,264 last year, reduced donor dependency from 7.3 percent in 2017/18 to 5.7 percent in the 2018/19 fiscal year and a 77.4 percent rise in rice production under irrigation programs from 3,049 tonnes in 2018 to 5,409 tonnes last year.

Abdiwawa further informed the House that more Zanzibaris were connected to the national grid electricity, adding that electrified households had increased by 15.6 percent from 14,940 in 2018 to 17,275 last year.

Other factors, which augmented the economy, according to the minister, are the impressive performance of the industrial sector, increased jobs in the private sector, and prevailing peace and tranquillity in the country.

He said private investments offered 24,009 jobs last year, an increase of 12.6 percent from 21,319 jobs in 2018. The industrial sector grew by 10.6 percent in 2019 as compared to the previous year's 3.8 percent growth rate.

Mahonda-based Zanzibar Sugar Factory Ltd, Azam Diary, Mtoni-based Zanzibar Milling Corporation, and Turkish Mifuko Limited are among the industries that boosted industrial production in the country, according to the minister.

The industrial sector's contribution to GDP rose to 18.3 percent in 2019 from 17.8 percent in 2018, with the service sector remaining the major contributor to the national economy although its contribution dropped slightly to 50.6 51.3 percent over the period under review.

The agricultural sector became second after service, contributing 21.2 percent to the GDP in 2019, a slight decrease from 21.3 percent in 2018.