Z’bar impresses in tackling unemployment
ZANZIBAR: PRESIDENT Dr Hussein Mwinyi on Friday graced the second edition of ‘Fahari ya Zanzibar’ festival, saying the Islands have recorded remarkable strides in tackling unemployment over the past three years.
Speaking at the opening of the festival at the Zanzibar’s new international trade fair area in Nyamanzi, Unguja West B District, he said that recent evaluations and statistics from the Zanzibar Economic Empowerment Agency (ZEEA) show many young people are securing jobs.
“A total of 187,651 jobs have been created, benefiting 94,622 women and 93,029 men. These include permanent, contract, temporary, labourers, job opportunities abroad and roles in public institutions,” Dr Mwinyi informed the well-attended event.
He noted that the success achieved since the establishment of ZEEA in 2022 aligns with last year’s festival theme, “Empower the Citizens, Create Jobs by Strengthening the Sustainable Economy,” and fulfills the directive outlined in the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) election manifesto for 2020/2025.
He explained that overall, statistics show that employment in the formal sector has increased to 62.9 per cent while the informal sector accounts for 37.1 per cent.
“This indicates that the informal sector continues to make a significant contribution to generating employment in the country, which helps us achieve our goal of sustainable economic growth,” he said.
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Dr Mwinyi highlighted that his political party promised during the campaign to implement various effective strategies for economically empowering the people and significant progress has been made, including the construction of new market centres where small entrepreneurs can sell their goods.
He said that the improvement of infrastructure and the construction of modern market centres in both urban and rural areas aim to provide entrepreneurs and other members of the business community with a conducive environment to conduct their activities.
“In addition, I have been informed that measures to provide loans to small business owners to help increase their capital are already being implemented,” said the Zanzibar President, adding that the government has also enhanced the ten per cent economic empowerment formula for better implementation.
He noted that the implementation of the ten per cent formula, which allocates local government revenue—4 per cent for women, 4 per cent for youths and 2 per cent for people with disabilities—presents another opportunity for job creation in the country.
Dr Mwinyi acknowledged delays in implementing the programme but mentioned that the Tanzania Commercial Bank (TCB) has started issuing the loans.
“The execution of these economic empowerment plans has enabled the Zanzibar government to surpass the goal set in the CCM manifesto of creating 300,000 jobs by 2025.” He also emphasised that cooperation between government institutions, private organisations, financial institutions, non-governmental organisations, international bodies and all other stakeholders is crucial in overcoming the challenges people face in creating jobs.
The President commended ZEEA for the good work, saying in a short period of its existence, it has availed funds for loans, including issuing of 30.2bn/- to entrepreneurs and that ZEEA has been in the forefront in designing and finding projects to empower citizens economically.
Dr Mwinyi promised that soon Zanzibar will launch ‘Loan Management System’ to ease loan application procedures and that the system has been achieved due to collaboration with the Air-pay company, Zanzibar e-Government (E-Gaz) and the Presidential Delivery Bureau (PDB).
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In addition, he highlighted that public, financial and private institutions, organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders have the responsibility to support the government’s efforts by increasing capital, providing training and other support to entrepreneurs and businessmen to grow.
This year’s theme is “Digitalisation of economic empowerment in Zanzibar,” which emphasises the need for entrepreneurs and all stakeholders of empowerment issues to reform their methods from the traditional system and enter the digital system with the aim of increasing efficiency.”
