Tanzania’s industrialization drive starts to pay dividends

The drive by President Magufuli is to propel this east African nation of more than 45 million people to a middle class status come 2025.

One of the country’s leading business tycoons, Said Salim Bakhresa, last week launched a $120 million fruit processing factory on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.

President Magufuli personally launched the new plant, which has the capacity to process 350 tonnes of fruits and vegetables daily.

At the inauguration ceremony, President Magufuli was full of praise for Bakhresa’s new investment and applauded the businessman’s commitment to creating new jobs in the country. The new juice factory is expected to create 600 new jobs.

Bakhresa’s new plant is the first indigenous aseptic packing facility for fruit juices in Tanzania and has the capacity to pack up to 41 million litres per annum. Plans were also afoot to construct a sugar factory on a 10,000 hectare plot.

As the dust caused by the presidential entourage to the fruits factory was yet to settle down, similarly good news came from another Tanzanian in the name of Jitesh Ladwa, the Managing Director of Simba Motors Tanzania Limited.

He revealed plans to put up a $200 million car assembly plant in the next two months in a joint venture with a Chinese firm - Foton International Trade Co. Ltd Company - and a Tanzanian government agency.

According to Ladwa, the first units of pick-up trucks to be assembled by the plant will roll off the assembly line by Christmas this year.

He further explained that the plant was expected to produce up to 5,000 cars a year when it is fully operational making Tanzania Africa’s next automotive hub.

Ladwa said the investment was in line with President John Magufuli's industrialization initiative and was expected to create new jobs and facilitate the transfer of state-of-the-art car assembly technology to Tanzania.

He said by assembling its own four-wheel drive pick-up trucks, Tanzania would make much-needed savings in foreign exchange that is currently being used to import vehicles from abroad.

The plant will provide 1,500 direct employment and 5,000 indirect employment opportunities for industries that will be built to support the assembly, including lights, tyres, batteries and alternators, and another 5,000 will be employed in support services.

All this news is music to our ears because industrialization is the only sure way of achieving expeditious development through value additions, employment creation, innovations and infrastructure service development.

However, as we embark on the journey toward industrialization, it is import to caution our bureaucrats to be resilient and firm on the challenges that might be faced on the way to making this country an industrial powerhouse.

We feel that there is urgent need to put in place an automotive industrial policy that will encourage domestic assembly and restrict direct imports of vehicles.

We understand that in Tanzania there is no incentive to produce goods taking into account that other regional countries and exporters do not have interest in Tanzania succeeding as they have their own industrial base and employment to protect.

If Tanzania needs to make the vehicle assembling plant thrive, the country has to approve friendly industrial automotive policies and tax on imports or levies like what Nigeria and Ethiopia have done to encourage domestic industrial base and to create jobs in the country.

And the most encouraging development is the support that the country has started to get in realizing this noble goal. China, our friends of 50-plus years, has expressed 100 per cent support for the industrialization crusade.

Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Dr Lu Youqing does not mince words when he says the Chinese government is firm on its resolve and commitment to oversee industrialization in Tanzania as a matter of priority.The industrial ball is now in our court, so let’s play our part.