‘Utilise population census results to stimulate socio-economic development’

MWANZA: A Senior Officer from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Mr Said Ameir has appealed to journalists and all Tanzanians to utilise population census results to stimulate socio-economic development.

He made the remarks recently while addressing a section of journalists from the three Lake Regions-Mwanza, Kagera and Mara who attended a two-day training on data monitoring held in Mwanza City.

“Tanzania’s population growth rate of 3.2 per cent offers both opportunities and challenges for the country’s development endeavours. Private sector engagement is also an essential component of the economic development of Tanzania and the country’s efforts to reach middle-income status by 2025,” he said.

Elaborating, he said businesses in Tanzania are at the forefront of growth through job creation, innovation, generating tax revenue and fair competition. The private sector’s vast financial resources and expertise in market-based solutions have the potential for tackling systematic societal challenges, he remarked.

Mr Ameir explained that accurate census data are critical for programmes that aim to identify areas eligible for economic development.

Adding….” Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the per cent rate of increase in the real and nominal gross domestic product (GDP),” he said.

President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan while revealing the findings of the Population and Housing Census, (2022), in Dodoma recently, said the population had risen to 61,741,120 people (61.74 million) this year.

She said it is estimated that come 2025, Tanzania will be home to 67.96 million people and that by 2050, there will be 151. 25 million people in the country.

“Though the data may not seem to be a problem for a huge country like Tanzania, the same poses a challenge in the delivery of social services,” the Head of State said.

Tanzania has one of Africa’s fastest growing economies with nearly 7 per cent annual national GDP growth since 2000. Yet, widespread poverty persists, with 49 per cent of Tanzania’s population living below the international extreme poverty line of 1.90 US dollars per day (World Bank 2011).