VICE-PRESIDENT Dr Philip Mpango has outlined Tanzania’s immense potential and invited investors to explore it especially in irrigation farming.
He said that the country has a large tract of land and conducive weather conditions for large-scale agriculture and agro-processing.
Dr Mpango said Tanzania has an estimated 29.4 million hectares of land suitable for irrigation with only about 2.4 per cent under irrigation.
The VP made the remarks yesterday at the 2022 Africa Investment Forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s economic capital, while leading a discussion between Tanzania and investors interested to invest in the Mara River Basin Irrigation Project.
“Investing in Tanzania guarantees access to a market of more than 450 million people in Eastern and Southern Africa in which, Tanzania enjoys preferential trade arrangements. Also there are 44 million hectares that are classified as arable, and about 10.8 million hectares that are cultivated,” Dr Mpango said.
“We do provide investment guarantees as we are a member of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) as well as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), we also give the right to transfer outside Tanzania 100 per cent of foreign exchange, profit and capital,” he noted.
Moreover, the Vice President mentioned various efforts made by the government to improve the investment climate. Among these efforts are the improvement of railways and roads, ports, and air transport, and the improvement of energy availability.
In spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Mpango reported that foreign direct investment projects in Tanzania have increased fivefold to 2.2 billion US dollars in 2021 from 454 million US dollars in 2020.
In his initial presentation to investors, Raymond Mndolwa, Director General of the National Commission of Irrigation, stated that the project is expected to strengthen infrastructures for irrigation, livestock keeping, and fishing, as well as increase the value of agricultural products in the area.
Mr Mndolwa further stated that the project will increase the income of smallholder farmers in the project area, as well as employment and production.
The Mara Valley Irrigation Project is expected to be implemented in the Mara Region districts of Serengeti, Tarime, and Butiama.
In another step, the Vice-President has led discussions with investors for the Mangapwani Modern Port Construction project, which is expected to be implemented by the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government.
He stated that the project is backed by a strong political commitment and it is one of the projects prioritised by the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA), in order to promote the Blue Economy and transform Zanzibar into a transportation hub between North and South Africa.
On his part, Nahaat Mohammed Mahfoudh, Director General of Zanzibar Ports Corporation (ZPC), stated that the project’s goal is to economically open up Zanzibar and become an important part of the sea transport business for the East African region and Africa in general.
He went on to say that the Port aims to serve a variety of domestic, regional, and international cargoes and to serve as a catalyst for the development of an industrial economy, which will result in increased employment and income in the country.
The multipurpose port at Mangapwani in Unguja will involve the construction of berths for liquid bulk goods, containers, fishing vessels, and natural gas offshore services as well as backup infrastructure for the rehabilitation of marine vessels.
