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Tanzania: Set Timeline to Curb Foreign Dependency
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
On Wednesday, the European Union gave Tanzania some 555 million euros (Sh950 billion) in budget support.
Early in the week, the EU had been forced to clarify its position on support for the Tanzania Government despite the mushrooming of mega scandals.
Contrary to earlier reports, the Europeans will continue their generous links with Dar es Salaam.
But they will do so, with at least a string attached.
Tanzania must intensify the war against grand corruption.
This is perhaps enemy No. 1 to prosperity of this nation.
One thing the country has increasingly become synonymous with in recent times is the mounting cases of colossal looting of public resources.
It's this mismanagement and illicit shifting of resources from where they would make a difference in people's lives, which condemn the majority of our people to a life of deprivation and sorrow.
While we appreciate what the donors are doing for us, this is only a stopgap measure.
It cannot be the long-term set-up for any country to continue to rely on foreigners to fund its national budget.
With all due respect to our development partners, the solution lies in building our own capacity to finance our budget.
We cannot rely on foreign assistance forever.
The EU gave us Sh950 billion the other day.
It will be released in instalments for the next six years.
Roughly, this is an average of Sh158 billion a year.
And how much did we commit ourselves to pay the suspect Richmond Development Company as electricity capacity charges?
It's, of course, Sh152 million a day! That is a whopping Sh55.5 billion a year.
Add capacity charges by other independent power projects.
And add the looting reported by the Controller and Auditor-General year in year out, not to mention the mining and forestry industries'potential, and you will realise that this country shouldn't be begging.
That Tanzania is the biggest recipient of donor support in East Africa may be a good thing, but in the long run, it's not the kind of tag that will lift us out of abject poverty.
Foreign financing accounted for 41 per cent of Tanzania's national budget last year, Uganda's dependency was 34 per cent and Kenya's, only five per cent.
A sizeable part of this foreign support is meant to drive our development agenda.
We all know that donors haven't always been keen enough to honour their pledges.
And when they don't, development projects stall.
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This is not healthy for our economy.
We must set a clear timeline to wean ourselves of this dependency.
That will mean coming up with workable strategies to cut costs, while striving to create a more vibrant economy.
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