Dodoma — DODOMA: PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has ordered all Regional Commissioners (RCs) to ensure that they establish economic empowerment centres in all regions and district councils as directed by the ruling party CCM manifesto before the 2025 deadline.
The ruling party's election manifesto 2020-2025 directs all regional authorities to ensure that by 2025, all regions and district councils have economic empowerment centres in order to help citizens to own their economy.
Speaking at the 7th National Symposium for Economic Empowerment (NEEC), Mr Majaliwa reminded the RCs of their obligation, insisting that they should make sure that the centres are established before 2025.
He also tasked the regional technocrats to ensure that youth symposiums and workshops were conducted in their regions to help them identify the various economic activities in the areas.
At the symposium, the Prime Minister also directed the Ministry of Finance to ensure that financial institutions were bringing financial services closer to the people as well as reducing loans' interest rates so that many people have access to them for their businesses and other economic activities.
Also, Mr Majaliwa tasked the Ministry of State in the Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs), Public Entities and the Private Sector in general to establish a special database that will have a proper number of people that so far have been empowered economically and identifying the number of those engaging themselves in economic activities.
"We want to see if the number is enough and, in any case, we realise that the number is not...we will see how best we can double the number," he added.
The one-day 7th National Symposium for Economic Empowerment was conducted under the theme: Empowerment for Sustainable Economy.
According to the Prime minister, the theme reflects President Samia Suluhu Hassan's agenda of empowering people economically and that it aimed at improving economic empowerment services in the country.
Prior to welcoming the Prime Minister to deliver his speech, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs), Ms Jenister Mhagama said that this was the seventh time NEEC was convening the symposium for economic empowerment and that the symposium was following the directives by the Prime Minister.
Also, the minister said that the main objective of the symposium was to make a thorough assessment of the last symposium to see how the challenges were addressed as well as putting up strategic plans for the future, as well as looking at whether the national economic empowerment policy and its legislation were fully implemented or not.
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"The major purpose of the government is to make sure that Tanzanians are owning the economy of their country and this can only be achieved through NEEC if the council puts up proper plans for economic empowerment," noted the minister adding that the government equally wanted to see citizens participating in all the ongoing flagship projects in the country.
Ms Mhagama however, hinted that his ministry was working on the Prime Minister's directives to look at the National Economic Empowerment Policy and its legislation and see if they meet the current demand.
According to the Executive Secretary of the NEEC, Beng'i Issa, the workshop convened different stakeholders involved in empowering citizens economically so as to share experience on different activities regarding empowerment.
She said among the participants at the workshop were ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Regional and District Commissioners, Regional Administrative Secretaries, heads of higher learning institutions as well as research institutions among others.
She noted that her council had made tremendous strides in increasing empowerment centres in different district councils countrywide, whereas this year economic empowerment centres increased to 20 from 17 that were available last year.
"I am glad to inform you that just this year alone NEEC provided training to 10,000 entrepreneurs who are now engaging themselves in different kinds of businesses. Also, this year, financial institutions provided loans to empower Tanzanians economically totalling 2.7bn/-.
