Zanzibar — LIVESTOCK keeping entrepreneurs at Mtofaani- Nunga, Mwera area, a popular farming destination on Unguja Islands, have expressed dissatisfaction towards the "Kituo cha Mafunzo ya Ujasirimali Tanzania" (KIMUTA) for delays in providing them with farm animals for months after payments.

KIMUTA was established in Zanzibar last November to train and empower entrepreneurs as an efforts to reduce unemployment and poverty problems. They are trained with livestock keeping skills for poultry, cattle, and goats, before providing them with the animals to begin the project.

Each registered members has to pay for the training before KIMUTA gives them animals. Entrepreneurs for poultry pay 35,000/-; goats have to pay 60,000/-, and entrepreneurs for cattle are required to pay 220,000/-.

Then after the training, each member in each group, is supplied with 100 chicks, two goats (male and female), and a female cow. "But since the last training was held about four months ago, KIMUTA has not provided the live stocks, sparking allegations that they have been cheated.

In response to the entrepreneurs' uproar, involving the Unguja West District Commissioner Mr Hassan Takrima, the KIMUTA coordinator in Zanzibar, Mr Abdulrahman Suleiman, asked to exercise patience. "We regret for the delays, but soon the livestock will be given to the more than 200 entrepreneurs, who have been trained.

There is no cheating, and I condemn those spreading rumours about KIMUTA project," Suleiman said. He also mentioned that some of the challenges facing KIMUTA were insufficient space for poultry keeping, and transportation of the goats and cows from Tanzania mainland to Zanzibar.