The EconomicPost

Jacquiline Ntuyabaliwe MFONOBONG NSEHE , Forbes Magazine : Weaving in and out of Dar es Salaam’s grating midday traffic in her chauffeured white Mercedes S550, Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe, a svelte 38-year-old beauty, is transfixed by an image of a dining set on her phone. With a slim, elegant finger, she prods her cellphone screen to show me the picture she’s looking at. “This is one of our pieces,” she says, pointing to the picture of a 5-piece dining set. It’s one of the items produced by Molocaho by Amorette , the furniture-manufacturing firm she recently founded. “This set was handcrafted from timber which was reclaimed from old cargo boats from the Indian Ocean along Tanzania’s coastline,” says the entrepreneur earnestly.

Poor performance of rains during the current agricultural season has affected the livelihood of farmers and pastoralists.The Famine Early Warning System now reports that many parts of the country have experienced food shortages associated with a depletion of maize stocks which is the major stable for many Tanzania. Maize prices have increased across all markets with Dar es Salaam having seen an increase of over 40 percent compared to the same period last year. In January, the Government conducted an assessment on food and nutrition security in the country.

Tanzania wants a study conducted on the impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union on the East African Community, ahead of the Summit of Heads of State scheduled for next month.The demand reiterates Tanzania's position that Kenya and Rwanda should not have signed the EPA last year and, given the inadequate time before the summit, there won't be much progress on the matter before April 1, when the EU expects the EAC to sign up to the accord.

By Mnaku Mbani The East Africa pension funds and insurance companies across the sub-region have nearly doubled their portfolio assets in recent years, from $10.7 billion in 2011 to about $19.1 billion in 2015. While only a small percentage of the total populations of these countries have access to pension and insurance products, these industries are growing, and these local investors will almost certainly play a significant role in how the EAC’s capital markets develop in the coming years.  

Cattle at Pugu market/ Photo by Internet By Mnaku Mbani Prices of live cattle at the Pugu Livestock Market increased last week when compared with the previous week. The weekly livestock market summary published by the ministry of industry, trade and investment has shown that an average sale per day fell by 7.4 per cent to 932 last week from 1006 recorded the previous week.

By Mnaku Mbani The Tanzania mortgage market registered a decline of 16 percent during the third quarter of year 2016 compared to a growth rate of 29 percent recorded in Q2 2016. Likewise, the number of mortgage accounts declined from accounts 3,627 reported in Q2 2016 to 2,981 accounts as at end of Q3 2016. According to the Bank of Tanzania mortgage report for the third quarter of last year, the decline was mainly attributed to correction in reporting by the banks where some commercial property loans were removed to only report residential mortgage loans.

BY MNAKU MBANI Foreign investors are continuing to dominate trading activities at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) which has also helped to improve the market turnover. The DSE market reports have shown that foreign investors are currently accounting for more than 90 of the market activities, mainly on the buying side, while local investors are leading in selling their shares.The DSE has reposted that during January and February this year, number of foreign investors a total turnover of Tsh31 million were recorded, but Tsh30 billion were from foreign investors’ involvement.

J OHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Kibo Mining has terminated joint venture (JV) activities with Metal Tiger at the Pinewood and Morogoro mines, in Tanzania . The companies will also relinquish the mine licences back to the local authorities. The miner explained in a statement on Friday that both companies had experienced considerable success in other projects , which has led to these interests becoming the absolute focus of each company.

Feb 24 (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 struck the southern area of Lake Tanganyika early on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter of the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.1, was in a national park area in northern Zambia close to Lake Tanganyika.

By Natasha Odendaal JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Edenville Energy is embarking on the next phase of development at its Rukwa coal project, in western Tanzania, as it acquires a coal washing plant and crusher and appoints a wash plant engineer. The start of the process to ship and assemble the wash plant, in anticipation of starting coal production, will follow the company’s March 17 annual general meeting, during which resolutions to complete the acquisition will be sought.

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti will resume dividends after lower operating and interest costs helped it nearly double free cash flow to $278-million on lower production. In the 12 months to December 31, AngloGold Ashanti produced 3.6-million ounces of gold across its 17-mine portfolio at a total cash cost of $744/oz, compared with the higher 3.8-million ounces at $712/oz in the prior year.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu with Magufuli By Mnaku Mbani Tanzania’s intra-SADC trade declined by 15.5 percent to USD 1,697.3 million in 2015 from the amount recorded in preceding year. The Bank of Tanzania Economic Operations and annual report for the year ended in June 2015 published mid this month this development was attributed to a decrease in both exports and imports.

By Mnaku Mbani Tanzania’s intra-EAC trade declined by 12.6 percent to USD 1,139.7 million (Tsh2.4 trillion) in 2015 from the preceding year, largely on account of a fall in imports. According to Bank of Tanzania Economic and Operations annual report ended in June 30, 2015 published mid this month, exports to Kenya increased to USD 729.8 million from USD 446.0 million, while imports decreased to USD 238.1 million from USD 654.7 million.

By Mnaku Mbani The Interbank money market rates fell to an average rate of 7 per cent yesterday, the lowest in fourteen months. This has been translated into an increased financial liquidity in the market as the rate fell from the highest rate of 17 during the end of last year.The Bank of Tanzania data shows that the rates started to fall early January at the rate of 10 per cent from 14 per cent recorded at the end of December last year.

By Mnaku Mbani The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) All Shares Index (DSEI) closed at 2,273.06 yesterday, down by 18.60 per cent when compared with Wednesday. The fall of the DSEI, which calculate the performance of all locally listed and cross listed companies was a result of fall of some share prices including East African Breweries Limited which dropped by 3.39 per cent, KCB Limited by 3.70 per cent and NMG price which fell by 2.14 per cent.

By Mnaku Mbani Barclays Africa group, the financial service group with operations in twelve countries in Africa today reported a third consecutive year of earning growth. Presenting the financial results through video conference from Johannesburg, Barclays Africa Group Chief Executive Maria Ramos said the headline earning for 2016 increased by 5 per cent to R14.9 billion.

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania said on Monday it needs $46.2 billion in investment over the next 20 years to revamp ageing energy infrastructure and meet soaring demand for electricity. Investors have long complained that a lack of reliable power is an obstacle to doing business in east Africa's second biggest economy.

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's current account deficit narrowed 48.8 percent to $2.05 billion last year, on the back of fewer imports and a rise in tourism earnings and gold exports, the central bank said. Tanzania, which has a population of around 50 million, is Africa's fourth-largest gold producer after South Africa, Ghana and Mali.

Coming in at around $86 billion, Bill Gates has ridden his Microsoft MSFT, -0.20% fortune straight to the top of the Forbes list of the world’s richest men. Then again, the business magazine doesn’t take into account the world leaders and “dictators who derive their fortunes entirely as a result of their position of power.” If it did, there’d likely be a new top dog, according to reports that revisited the idea that Vladimir Putin’s net worth, virtually impossible to measure, tops $200 billion. International Business Times triggered the latest round of speculation when it resurfaced various guesses as to the degree of Putin’s riches. One source said it’s only about $40 billion, while another put it up near $70 billion. Then there’s Bill Browder, a former fund manager in Russia. “I believe that [Putin is worth] $200 billion,” he once told CNN. “After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn’t been spent

The World Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank published the first Global Report on Islamic Finance , which details the prospects for the global Islamic finance industry and its potential to help reduce worldwide income inequality, enhance sharing prosperity, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Subtitled “A Catalyst for Shared Prosperity?”, the report provides an overview of trends in Islamic finance, identifies major challenges hindering the industry’s growth, and recommends policy interventions to leverage Islamic finance for promoting shared prosperity.

By Mnaku Mbani Consumers in Tanzania’s mobile telecommunication sector are digging dip into their pockets after service providers raised their tariffs for internet packages, ahead of listing their shares during this first quarter of this year. Apart from raising internet costs, other companies have announced retrenchment of employees of which will now result into job losses in non technical employees.

By Mnaku Mbani Manufacturing value added (MVA) in Tanzania has more than doubled in real terms from US$894 million in 2000 to US$1,992 million in 2010. According to the working paper published by REPOA, the poverty research organization, since 2010 growth of the manufacturing sector has continued to outpace overall GDP growth, but it has lagged growth in a number of services sectors.

By Mnaku Mbani Economies of urban farmers, mainly those involved with horticulture in Dar es Salaam have continued to deteriorate following the prolonged drought which has resulted into the fall of production. Tanzania has experienced shortages of rain since last year, which is totally threatening future food security, and this has generally affected the welfare of urban farmers.

By Mnaku Mbani Large size of the families has been identified as the main reason for failure to pay back loan in VICOBA as many members having a lot of dependents in their family. This implies that large number of members in the family cannot be able to engaged in economic activities, so the loan which is obtained from VICOBA acts as the only source of income in the family to solve different issues rather than channeling in income generation so that they cannot be able to repay loan on time.

By Mnaku Mbani The Village Community Bank (VICOBA) scheme in Tanzania attracts Tanzanians aged between 18 and 34 than their counterparts aged beyond 35 years. According to the findings of the study titled “ Failure and Collapse of Village Community Banks in Tanzania: Some Findings from Meru District in Arusha Region most of VICOBA members are young.

By Mnaku Mbani Tanzania has been ranked 4th highest in terms of domestic violence prevalence, according to World Health Organization (WHO).. According to the MKUKUTA Status Report of 2006 indicated that 60% of women believe that wife beating is acceptable.

By Mnaku Mbani Tanzanians are said to be living longer than their counterparts in East African Community (EAC) after the new report revealing that they live one year than Rwandese, four years than Kenyans and seven years than Ugandans. The report which is part of the study on financial sector and insurance in East Africa published by the Tanzania Knowledge Network (TKNET) has revealed that life expectancy for Tanzanians increased to 64 years in 2015 from 49.1 years in 2000.

By Mnaku Mbani The Tanzania banking sector continues to maintain steady growth with total assets growing by 2.6 percent to TZS 27,978.2 billion at the end of December 2016 compared with TZS 26,917.2 billion recorded at the end of December 2015. The Bank of Tanzania Monetary Policy Statement published today says during the period under review, deposits accounted for 79.8 percent of total liabilities.

By Mnaku Mbani The central bank of Tanzania has said it will continue with cautious monetary policy during the second half of Financial Year 2016/17, which started last month. In its Monetary Policy Statement published today, the Bank of Tanzania says it will continue with its cautious monetary policy in the midst of the projected moderate rate of inflation and slowdown of credit to the private sector.

By Mnaku Mbani Zanzibar economy real GDP grew at an average of 4.4 percent during the first three quarters of 2016, compared with 8.0 percent recorded in the corresponding period in 2015. The Bank of Tanzania Monetary Policy Statement 2017 published today has said the moderate growth was primarily attributed to decline in the growth rates of construction, and information and communication activities.

By Mnaku Mbani The banking sector remained sound, stable and profitable with levels of capital and liquidity above regulatory requirements. The Monetary Policy Statement for February 2017 published today by the Bank of Tanzania has shown that the ratio of core capital to total risk weighted assets and off-balance sheet exposures was 17.8 percent at the end of December 2016, above the minimum legal requirement of 10 percent.

By Mnaku Mbani Tanzania current account deficit narrowed by 33.2 percent During the first half of 2016/17to a deficit of USD 1,000.4 million, compared with a deficit of USD 1,498.5 million registered in the corresponding period in 2015/16. The Monetary Policy Statement for February 2017 published today by the Bank of Tanzania has said this development was mainly attributed to decline in import of goods and services as exports remained broadly the same.

WASHINGTON: Africa’s cities are growing in population – adding the size of another Nigeria to cities by 2025 – so have a critical role to play in their countries’ economic growth, says a new World Bank report released yesterday. Improving conditions for people and businesses in African cities by aggressively investing in infrastructure and reforming land markets is the key to accelerating economic growth, adding jobs, and improving city competitiveness. 

By Mnaku Mbani The Tanzania Treasury Bills floated by Bank of Tanzania were oversubscribed by almost 200 per cent, which indicates an increased appetite on government securities. The auction results published by the Bank of Tanzania today indicates that a total of 230 bids were received but only 125 were successful.

By Mnaku Mbani Tanzanian consumers paid more to obtain good and services in January following an increased headline inflation. According to the Consumer Price Index report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) today, annual headline inflation for the month of January, 2017 increased to 5.2% from 5.0% recorded in December, 2016.