The EconomicPost

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.