DAR ES SALAAM: TANZANIA’s poverty rate has plunged to an average of 26 per cent during the implementation of the current National Development Vision (2000-2025).
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country recorded 35.7 per cent poverty rate in the year 2000.
Prior to that, the figure showed that it was 38.6 per cent 10 years back in 1991.
“This is ongoing process and the government’s efforts continue to reduce the number of poor people in the country.
This is why in the next development vision (Vision 2050), we want to completely eradicate poverty.
All countries in the world have set a target of eradicating poverty,” stated Minister in the President’s Office (Planning and Investment), Professor Kitila Mkumbo.
Prof Mkumbo revealed this on Tuesday when speaking in the TBC1 morning programme dubbed ‘Jambo Tanzania’.
“We will continue fighting this enemy (poverty), in fact no country has stopped fighting it, so this is a continuous fight. We want to lift all Tanzanians out of the poverty line,” he stressed.
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Prof Mkumbo added that poverty eradication is a glob- al issue that no country has achieved by 100 per cent.
His remark comes ahead of the government’s main budget for the 2024/25 fiscal year, which will be presented in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Prof Mkumbo highlighted the significant achievements and challenges faced during the implementation of the current development vision, which will end in 2025.
Highlighting successes by sectors, he noted that in next development vision (Vision 2050), we want to completely eradicate poverty.
All countries in the world have set a target of eradicating poverty,” stated Minister in the President’s Office (Planning and Investment), Professor Kitila Mkumbo.
Prof Mkumbo revealed this on Tuesday when speaking in the TBC1 morning programme dubbed ‘Jambo 2000, rural water access was at 32 per cent and it shot up 79.8 per cent, nearly 80 per cent, demonstrating the substantial progress made over the past 25 years.
In the education sector, Professor Mkumbo explained that in 2000, less than 10 per cent of primary school graduates had the opportunity to at- tend secondary school.
Currently, out of every 100 students, 70 proceed to secondary education, indicating major advancements in the sector.
As the current vision approaches its end in 2025, Tanzanians are actively providing their views to be considered in the development of the country’s Vision 2050.
“We aim to reach 2050 with an upper-middle-in- come economy, meaning no Tanzanian will be living below the poverty line,” Prof Mkumbo pointed out.
Recently, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Dr Natu Mwamba was quoted saying that during the implementation of the current vision, the nation managed to increase the rate of economic growth by an average of 6 per cent.
Dr Mwamba said this during the launch of the preparation process for the National Development Vision 2050 held in Dodoma.
She said the maternal and child mortality in the country decreased from 854 deaths per 100,000 births and 99 deaths per 1,000 births respectively in 2000, to 524 deaths per 100,000 births and 36 deaths per 1,000 births respectively in 2020.
The Permanent Secretary added that through the 2025 Vision, the access to electricity in rural areas has risen and reached 69.8 per cent in 2020.
She further added that the vision focused on iproving the living conditions of Tanzanians; the existence of peace, security and unity; good governance and the rule of law; the existence of well – educated and learning society; and building a strong and com- petitive economy.
According to Dr Natu, when the implementation of Vision 2025 began, the country was going through many economic challenges, including the implementation of some of the conditions of international financial institutions for poor and heavily indebted countries.
She said that the procedure required the country to implement the conditions so that they can get loans and aid as well as prepare poverty reduction strategic papers, where Tanzania prepared National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA I) from June 2000 to July 2003.
The National Develop- ment Vision 2025 has been implemented through various Programmes and The Long-Term Perspective Plan 2011/12 – 2025/26, whose implementation was divided into three phases of the Five-Year National Development Plans.
The First Five-Year National Development Plan –2011/12 – 2015/16 had a theme of unleashing growth potentials by de-bottlenecking binding constraints to growth, while Second Five-Year National Development Plan 2016/17 – 2020/21 focused on nurturing industrialisation for economic transformation and human development.
The Third and final Five-Year National Development Plan 2021/22 – 2025/26 is carrying a theme of realising competitiveness and industrialisation for hu- man development that aims to increase efficiency and productivity in manufacturing using the resources available in abundance within the country.
According to her, the nation maintained adequate levels of foreign exchange reserves as well as sustainable national debt and a stable financial system, despite having a global pandemic of Covid-19 that affected economies of various countries in the world.
