DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania (Xinhua) — The Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) is holding talks with its counterparts in other East African Community (EAC) member states aimed at convincing them to scrap tariff barriers on exports of milk from Tanzania, officials said on Thursday.
TDB acting registrar Nelson Kilongozi, said removal of the tariff barriers would expand Tanzania’s dairy products market in the other EAC members of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Speaking at a seminar for building capacity to small holder dairy farmers in the east African nation’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Kilongozi admitted that Tanzania’s dairy sector has been grappling with limited market since it could not sell beyond the country’s borders.
“In fact we feel that these tariff barriers are unnecessary, we want our colleagues in the EAC member states to remove them,” he said.
Currently, Tanzania produces 2.4 billion litres of milk annually out of which 30 per cent is produced by dairy cows and the remaining 70 per cent comes from traditional free range cattle.
Philip Emmanuel, a senior official with the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Cooperatives encouraged dairy farmers to form cooperatives to improve their economic status.
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Tanzania sets 94 per cent of energy budget for development projects
DAR ES SALAAM (Xinhua) — Tanzanian authorities said on Thursday they were planning to spend 94 percent of the energy and minerals’ budget for implementation of development projects in the coming financial year that starts on July 1.
Sospeter Muhongo, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, told Parliament in Dodoma that most of the ministry’s budget for 2016/17 amounting to 561 million US dollars will be used to implement energy projects in the country.
He said the energy projects to be implemented in the new financial year were aimed at improving electricity production, supply and transportation across the country, the second largest economy in East Africa.
Muhongo said 78 per cent of the current (2015/2016) budget was allocated to development expenditure but this time the government wanted to boost energy projects including implementation of the third phase of the rural electrification under the Rural Energy Agency (REA).
“REA projects have enabled the government to increase power access level from 36 per cent in March 2015 to 40 per cent in April this year,” said the minister.
Some of the projects to be implemented in the coming budget include extension of Kinyerezi I to 185 megawatts and construction of Kinyerezi II (240MW); the projects which will generate power using natural gas discovered in the country.
Tanzania has discovered 57.25 trillion cubic feet so far from both the mainland and in the Indian Ocean deep-sea.
Muhongo said the government will also start power transportation projects including the 400kV backbone between Iringa and Shinyanga regions whose implantation was estimated at 89 percent.
The project was expected to improve power supply in Arusha, Singida, Mwanza, Shinyanga and Tabora regions and connect to national grids of Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, he said.
Tanzania participates in the Eastern African Power Pool and Southern African Power Pool.
Source: Coast Week

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