Friday 21 February 2014

End smuggling, investors urge govt

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By The Citizen Reporter

Mwanza. Manufacturers and other players in the economy have urged the government to embrace a holistic approach to curbing the menace of smuggling.

Manufacturers said apart from the negative impacts smuggling has on the development of local industries, it also denies the government of appreciable revenue.

Local investors attending the three-day forum raised concern over unabated smuggling of various products into the Lake Zone saying it deeply hurts local industries.

They raised the concern during the just ended Lake Zone’s Investor Forum, warning if not checked most of threatened industries may soon close down.

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Thursday 20 February 2014

Transport firm in major expansion plans to upcountry

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Veneranda Sumila

The majority shareholder in Shirika la Usafiri Dar es Salaam (UDA), Simons Group will buy 20 modern buses and dispatch them on upcountry routes, the company announced recently.

Chief executive officer and chairman, Robert Kisena said in Dar es Salaam earlier this week that the buses will travel between Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, Mbeya and Tanga.

“We have already ordered 20 buses which will arrive in the country anytime in the next few weeks….we want to make travelling in the country more a comfortable undertaking,”
he said. The plan goes alongside that of building hotels that offer world-class services in all the destinations where the company’s buses will be travelling to.

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Free fishing industry from levy, let it grow

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
Editorial

The fishing sector faces a number of problems, most of them self inflicted. Overfishing and illegal fishing are the order of the day in the Lake Zone.

Worse still, unscrupulous surveillance officials are directly or indirectly involved in fishing using small-mesh nets, which poses a big threat to the Nile Perch.

In one of his recent audit reports, Controller and Auditor General Ludovick Utouh noted that the amount of immature Nile Perch caught rose from 83,157 tonnes in 2008 to 84,782 tonnes in 2010 in Mwanza, Mara and Kagera regions.

Recent data published by the Tanzania Industrial Fishing and Processors Association indicates that though the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation wants a maximum biomass of 382,500 tons to remain in the Tanzania section of the lake, Nile Perch fishing overshot the limit by 57 per cent in 2012.

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Wednesday 19 February 2014

Commuter bus operators’ strike paralyses Mwanza

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Miguel Suleyman

Transport in Mwanza city was yesterday paralysed when commuter bus operators halted services in protest against dangerous parking at Buzuruga Bus Stand.

The boycott, which began early yesterday, also affected other businesses and in some areas angry touts stoned some minibuses that defied the boycott order.

The operators told The Citizen that they were protesting against the city council move to force their vehicles to park at the newly constructed bus stand, which they claimed, is too narrow and dangerously placed.

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Tuesday 11 February 2014

Lake Zone investors’ forum set for next week

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Diana Heriel

Mwanza. Various opportunities in mining, fisheries, farming and tourism sectors are expected to dominate the agenda during this year’s Lake Zone investors’ forum, which Presidents Jakaya Kikwete is expected to officially open in Mwanza next week.

The three-day forum has drawn government officials, business communities and industrialists from six regions besides delegates from the East African Community member states, according to a pre-forum meeting statement released at the weekend by the Mwanza Regional Commissioner, Mr Evarist Ndikilo.

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Saturday 8 February 2014

Mwanza irrigates only 3pc of land

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Annastazia Fredy

Misungwi. Mwanza Region has yet to effectively use Lake Victoria waters for irrigation purposes. Only 3 per cent of land is under irrigation.

Drip irrigation has gained little steam in the region despite its potential in boosting food security and incomes of thousands of farming households.

The manager for the Lake Zone Irrigation Scheme, Mr Wilson Kalumona, told The Citizen yesterday that only 1,007 hectares of the land is being irrigated out 36,315 hectares.

He said Misungwi District has 353.8 hectares of the irrigated land.

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Tuesday 4 February 2014

Laac rejects city report on Sh853m health clinic

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Sheilla Sezzy and Annastazia Fredy

Misery continues to pile up at Mwanza City Council after the Parliamentary Local Authority Accounts Committee (Laac) rejected the council’s financial report on the construction of a new maternal health clinic in Nyamagana District.

The committee refused to endorse the report, saying the Sh853.5 million facility was far below standards.

Speaking to the city council’s executives, Laac chairman, Dr Hamisi Kigwangala, said the standard of the work doesn’t convince the committee that it’s worth the amount as the report presented by Halipha Hida, the Mwanza City Council executive director shows.

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Police in trouble for asking for cash for fuel

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By  Salum Maige

Police authorities in Mwanza are planning to take legal measures against an officer in Sengerema District for allegedly demanding Sh100,000 from a family of a suicide victim.

It was alleged that the officer attached to Nyakalilo Police Post in Sengerema, who was accompanied by a local militiaman, demanded the money from the family of Suzana James, 28, who hanged herself, saying the amount was for footing the cost of fuel to transport the body to hospital.

The acting regional police commander, Mr Joseph Konyo, told The Citizen that conduct of the officer was contrary to police regulations; hence he deserves a punishment. ‘’We are investigating the incident and if proved legal measures will be taken against him,” Mr Konyo said.

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Monday 3 February 2014

Concern as fish catches fall in Lake Victoria

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Annastazia Fredy

Mwanza. Dwindling fish population in Lake Victoria, which has dropped by about 30 per cent, has continued to pile miseries in sales of processed fish fillet from 44,423 tonnes in 2012 to 42,827 tonnes at the end of 2013.

A report on economic performance for the Lake Zone’s major produce released by an economist with the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), Mr Musa Mziya, shows that an 11 per cent drop in revenue garnered from processed fish fillet was mostly attributed to the dwindling fish population in Lake Victoria as well as illegal fishing practices and environmental degradation.

Data from the zone’s fish processing firms shows that they reaped Sh200.3 million in 2011/2012 when a kilo of fish fillet was sold at Sh4,500.

“The price increased due to the market demand, implicated by an acute shortage of fish in various areas across the zone,” he said.

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