Foremost, that there is more than 300,000 hectares of land planned to be put under irrigated farming in the Southern Agricultural Corridor in Tanzania.

That more than two million Tanzanians can be pulled permanently out of poverty with transformative agricultural practice and that more than us$1,200,000,000 can be earned annually from the same to the farming community.

These are not mere figures off the head. These are statistical projections made available by the Chief Executive Officer from the Southern Agriculture Corridor Mr Geoffrey Kirenga.

The open day event on PPP organised by the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TSPF) was even more crucial in that in captured a perspective that may even have been unintended - that of regional integration.

For this critical Agricultural green plan to work successfully, several factors must be in place and these must work towards the whole plan and contribute towards achieving the said growth plans.

None of those is more crucial than regional inter and intra East African and African trade. For a long time, Africans worked and pushed their co-operation agenda based on the cobwebs of colonial linkages that were never quite broken 50 years ago.

East Africans, for instance, did more work protecting their borders from regional trade than ensuring that food, a necessary life support requirement across borders. If and when the SAGCOT project works, Tanzania will immediately have in abundance not just maize, but green vegetables, beans, yams, potatoes, rice, wheat and avocados.

While Europe continues to dilly dally over what they can buy from Africa and the United States puts limits on what products from this region can access their markets, East Africa can use its production increase to ensure food access to its 90 million plus people.

What is more important than making food available to a population? However, to make sure that Avocados from Mbeya can get to markets in Kakuma on the border of Uganda and Southern Sudan, infrastructure will have to be put in place.

Once again, the importance of thinking outside the box is useful here. For the last 50 years East Africa struggled to maintain the road network build by colonial Governments. Those road and rail networks were suitable for the needs of the Governments who wanted Africa's deep seated mineral and other resources. It is Africa's resources, some say, that have built Belgium, Paris, London and other European Countries and capitals.

The new thinking was captured by the Africa Development Bank Group Tanzania Resident Representative Ms. Tonia Kandiero. In an eloquent presentation, Ms. Kandiero presented a case where the opportunities exist but have not been exploited to the full extent possible by the local business community.

Using an example of Senegal, Ms. Kandiero pointed out that for the funding opportunities to be put in place and exploited, business people and the Government must come together under a well -structured public private partnership that would ensure take off and survival of these projects.

"The private sector is a crucial stakeholder in ensuring projects not only take off but have a 100 per cent chance of survival while the Government on its part needs these projects to pay taxes and help fund it's other programmes," said Ms. Kandiero.

One of East Africa's often bandied example is the crucial role money transfer on mobile telephone platforms, M-pesa has been able to transform the way people do business and even transform opportunities for business in itself.

The African Development Bank Group has got opportunities in funding for both short term and long term funding windows in areas which include Energy generation, transmission and distribution. The energy sector opportunity goes further to create opportunities for green energy generation. In Transport opportunities include PPP in port development as now being undertaken in Lamu in Kenya, Rail and Road transport.

In the Telecommunications sector, the laying of fibre optic cables in West Africa was sighted as a crucial game changer. For Senegal said Ms. Kandiero, the African Development Bank arranged more than Dakar Toll Road, Dakar Port, Sendou Power Plant and the Blaise Diagne International Airport all at the cost of Euro 1.3b with AFDB posting 183m Euro towards the 4-prong PPP project over a 2 year period.

It is no doubt a game changer for a small country like Senegal. "Senegal is a small country and if Senegal can do it, why can't Tanzania do the same," posed a fired up Ms Kandiero.

That is indeed the deeper question. Why is East Africa lagging behind on these matters? East Africa has no framework for negotiating PPP projects. Everything crucial is in the hands of government and government is infamous for lethargy although Minister for Investments in the Prime Minister's office Dr Mary Nagu said the government has now taken corrective steps in changing the prohibitive PPP law regime.

Critically, however, perception that private investors and "thieves and robbers" of local wealth is one that Government has to manage. No investor wants to put their money into business if the environment is fraught with unnecessary fights with local community.