A third of Tanzanian children are engaged in child labour
By Timothy Kitundu,
Dares Salaam
The Integrated Labour Force Survey found out that about a third standing at 32.6 percent of children aged 5-17 years are employed on the Tanzania mainland. The majority of the remaining two-thirds are economically inactive.
According to the survey, a higher proportion of girls that is 70.5 percent than boys standing at 63.1per cent is inactive. The proportion of employed children increases with age. Thus 19.6per cent, 36.3per cent and 54.7per cent of children are employed for age groups 5-9, 10-14 and 15-17 years respectively.
ILFS states that the main reasons offered by households for letting the children work include getting proper upbringing about 37.9 per cent, assisting in household enterprise about31.4per cent and supplementing household income 22.1per cent. The distribution of reasons is similar in respect of boys and girls.
For children, in addition to asking about economic activities, the ILFS enquired about regular engagement in housekeeping activities or household chores in their parents’ or guardians’ home.
While this is not categorised as economic activity, it is also a form of work that may in some cases be harmful to children’s development.
Nearly half that is 48.1 per cent of children aged 5-9 years, 57.3 per cent of children aged 10-14 years, and 43.4per cent of children aged 15-17 years are reported to be involved in housekeeping or household chores.
There are slightly more girls than boys engaged in such activities in almost all geographical areas. More than a quarter, about 26.2 per cent of children aged 5-17 years are not attending school.
“The percentage not attending is much higher than this average among those doing only economic work that is 38.8 per cent and those doing both economic work and housekeeping is 38.4 per cent. The overall proportion of children not attending school is higher in rural than urban areas,” adds the survey.
Nevertheless, the apparent negative impact of work on children’s school attendance is greater in Dar es Salaam and other urban areas than in rural areas. Overall, the agricultural sector employs most of the employed children, about 82.4 per cent.
ILFS reveals that a much higher proportion of girls about 18.4 per cent than boys - 9.1 per cent are employed in household economic activities, with this same gender pattern observed across the geographical areas. In contrast, agriculture employs a higher proportion of boys that is 86.5 per cent than girls - 77.1 per cent.
Almost all children are employed either as agricultural and fishery workers about 66.8 per cent or in elementary occupations at 29.7 per cent. The industries that employ most of the children are agriculture, hunting, fishing and forestry about 81.6 per cent and private households with employed persons standing at 14.8 per cent).
Employed children spend an average of 23 hours work per week. The younger children tend to spent less time working than their older counterparts. The table reveals no differences between boys and girls in the number of hours worked.
More than 10 per cent of employed children experience frequent illnesses and injuries as a result of their work, while another half and more occasionally suffer from work-related illness or injury. Only about two out five employed children rarely experience work-related ailments.
SMEs say TRA training constructive
By Timothy Kitundu, Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam - based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have admitted that regular business management seminars provided by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) are constructive.
The latest two-day seminar was held in Ilala district in Dar es Salaam region over the weekend, and focused on the basics of how to prepare project proposals efficiently, as well as paying taxes accordingly.
Participants to the seminar confessed that many of them were doing their businesses unaware of how to prepare the proposals, a practice which was retarding their development.
Speaking during the seminar, Stella Bomola, who is a furniture dealer in Gongo la Mboto area; said business training seminars that are run by TRA are quite helpful to emerging SMEs and need to be sustained.
She said most of the SMEs in the country do not have knowledge on how to prepare project proposals hence are denied access to loans from financial institutions. “This seminar has helped us, since before, we did not understand how to prepare the project proposals, now we able and can apply for loans from the bank,” she said.
Another seminar participant, Flora Komba, a shop owner at Mtoni kwa Aziz Ali contended that training sessions were fruitful as she had come to learn about new business skills that before training she had been unaware of for about five years.
“Before my attendance at this seminar, I was totally unaware of the reasons that may lead a running business to collapse, or the appropriate taxes I am supposed to be paying. Right now, I am quite conversant about all these issues,” she said.
She said that lack of entrepreneurial knowledge is one of the leading factors that hinder small businesses from growing.
Abdallah Mwangia, a gemstone dealer along Livingstone Street in Kariakoo, urged the authority to provide such seminars at least after every six months. “This would enable to remind us how to do business efficiently with sustainability,” he stated. A study published 1981.
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Coastal Travel to develop tourism potential areas
By The Express Reporter, Dar es Salaam
A local based tourism firm, Coastal Travel Limited, has urged the government to promote other kinds of tourist attractions instead of concentrating on marketing national parks only.
This was said in Dar es Salaam on last week, by Malcom Ryen, the chief ecologist of Coastal Travel Ltd who added that in order for Tanzania to develop the tourist industry major attention should now be directed to other forms of tourism.
“We have been largely promoting national parks tourism forgetting other areas which also have great potentials” he said. He said the government and other stakeholders should now encourage tourists to spend time in the country, not only to rush from one park to the other.
“Tanzania has a perfect climate, nice people and good food, then why could we not promote lifestyle tourism,”? he queried.
With more than 900 km of coastline, tourists could even buy their own houses and come and spend their time here during winter in Europe, bringing investment and cash, the same is true for the mainland, places like Iringa, Mwanza and Bukoba could all be suitable attractions.
According to him local bed and breakfasts should be promoted, by allowing people to start their own business, as it happens in South Africa, but regulations must be simple and easy, otherwise all investors, foreigner and locals will be discouraged.
He said Tanzania has a lot of tourist potentials which needs to be fully utilized by both local and foreign tourists, from the coastline beaches, with all connected activities, such as diving, snorkeling, surfing, sport fishing and historical sites such as Kilwa.
Other potentials are natural resources and wildlife, with National Parks and Game Reserves, to the country side, from the kopjes of Iringa to the lake waters of Mwanza, through the villages and the cultural variety of the country.
Ryen said other countries especially in Africa have managed to promote other types of tourism which has led to increased foreign earnings.
Citing, an example, he said apart from animal viewing in national parks more than 90 percent of tourists in South Africa visited other tourist attractions. Tourist arrival in South Africa currently stands at 6 million per annum.
He urged Tanzanians to create a culture of visiting tourist attractions found in various parts of the country.
“We all understand that many people do not have the economic ability to visit tourism attractions but even those who have such abilities prefer to visit other countries, especially in Europe for tourism,” he said.
Adding that this is not good for economic development, however, we hope in the near future that Tanzanians will be interested in visiting their own country and their own attractions, from the parks to the beaches.
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Local construction players urged to increase share
By The Express Reporter, Dar es Salaam
DESPITE the fact that they command only 20 percent of the market share, the local construction industry has all reasons to increase the share, the Tanzania Revenue Authority TRA has said.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam , the TRA director of Taxpayer Services and Education, Protas Mmanda said the industry has the ability and capacity to design and supervise large construction projects.
“We have clear evidence buildings like PPF Towers, Benjamin Mkapa Towers and the Twin Towers of the Bank of Tanzania were supervised by local consulting firms and are to the required standards”, he said.
All the buildings which are changing the skyline of Dar es Salaam and other urban centers in the country are being supervised by local engineers.
Statistics shows that 21 percent of the construction firms are in class 1 and 2 who incidentally are foreign firms commanding 80 percent of the monetary value of civil works.
“Local firms end up with small locally financed projects from the government or public institutions.
“These small projects do not give the local firms adequate income and technical challenges to enable them for large national and international construction projects,” he said.
Explaining further, Mmanda said TRA had a number of structural developments projects which entailed construction of new buildings as well as rehabilitation of old buildings all over the country.
He said TRA constructed or rehabilitated 38 customs border and transit station buildings in 16 regional offices. “All these civil works were designed supervised and the constructed by local architects, consulting engineers and contractors”, he said. He said all the local contractors delivered quality work and for that reason many compliments should go to the consulting engineers who supervised the civil works which have changed the image of TRA countrywide.
He also said the construction industry which has experienced a steady growth of between 7.6 percent and 10 percent over last decade contributed 5.7 percent to the GDP.
It is a fundamental economic sector which is linked with other sectors through physical structures which are necessary for social and economic development of the country.
He said to achieve good end results; engineering firms create employment for people whereas the government collects tax from wages paid to employees.
According to him, the industry has created a number of secondary economic activities which stimulate other economic sectors such as cement manufacturing, steel production, and timber supply.
All these business activities contribute taxes to the government in form of corporate taxes from the manufacturing firms or PAYE from the employees.
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Vodacom introduces VodaZone Service
By The Express Reporter, Dar es Salaam
Vodacom Tanzania has launched a new service named VodaZone that will enable all Vodacom Prepaid and Vodajaza customers to make Vodacom calls at a discounted price.
Launching the service in Dar es Salaam, Exaudi Kiwali, Director of Sales and Distribution, said that the service aimed at giving a discount to customers while they are at the VodaZone location.
He said that VodaZone is only applicable for voice and video calls and that through VodaZone, Vodacom offers discount rates without affecting Vodacom’s known network quality.
“ We want our customers to experience the difference of the best affordable rates with the best quality and the best available network, he said.
He said while at the VodaZone location, a customer can call at VodaZone discounted prices.
“ For example you can see a display on your handset screen saying ‘VodaZone 30% less’. This means while at this VodaZone location, you can make Vodacom to Vodacom calls at 30% less the normal advertised price, he said.
He noted that to get information about the VodaZone discount, a client must activate the Cell Broadcast function on his phone. Cell broadcast will enable the phone to receive VodaZone discount information from Vodacom Tanzania.
Tax incentives healthy to consulting engineers
By The Express Reporter, Dar es Salaam
LOCAL consulting engineers have been challenged to take a lead in utilizing the tax incentives so as to enable them to compete effectively in the industry.
Tanzania Revenue Authority Director of Taxpayer Services and Education, Protas Mmanda, said this in Dar es Salaam recently on the occasion of the 22nd annual general meeting of Association of Consulting Engineers Tanzania.
According to Mmanda, considering the significance of the industry in the economic development of the country, the government has put in place a tax regime that encourages investment in the sector.
The government has provide a number of tax incentives in terms of capital allowances and deductions on the plant and machinery used in the industry as well as tax exemptions and relief on construction materials and equipment.
According to him the tax incentives package given under the Income Tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Customs Excise laws aims at creating a conducive environment for encouraging local and foreign firms to invest in the sector.
Under the current investment policy of the country, tax incentives are targeted to particular sectors of the economy, which include infrastructure development, where engineering firms belong.
Holders of certificate of incentives, including those in the construction industry, are entitled to these incentives. Under Income Tax Law, tax incentives are in the form of capital allowances and deductions on the capital assets employed in the construction business.
Examples of such assets are construction and earthmoving equipment, heavy general purpose trucks, trailers, specialized public utility equipment which enjoy a depreciation of about 37.5 percent or 25 percent.
“Hopefully you will take a lead in utilizing these incentives so as to enable you to compete effectively in the industry”, he said.
Mmanda also challenged unethical behaviour of some engineering firms who for financial reason accept reducing the quality of the work so as to meet the client’s financial situation in anticipation of getting a job.
They do so in order to get the money for obvious reasons, such firms will not be able to employ competent engineers to supervise the work. He also noted the issues of delays in completing works or completed below standards.
“There is another problem of abuse of tax relief and exemptions where dishonest engineers collude with their client to get tax free materials and sell them in the normal market, or use them for unintended projects,” Mmanda said..
Speaking earlier, the ACET chairman, engineer Joseph Chuwa, said they were all anxious to hear and learn from TRA about the tax regime in the construction industry in general and engineering consulting in particular.
He said consulting engineers represent a constituent of tax payers in the construction industry which takes a significant portion of the government’s development budget.
ACET council has worked out strategies to raise membership of the association to a level where it can speak with one strong voice and be heard.
Firm to develop untapped tourism in the southern circuit
By Timothy Kitundu, Dar es Salaam
Coastal Travel Limited, a Tanzanian based tourism firm has revealed that it has plans to develop untapped tourism potentials in the Southern circuit this year.
Experience shows that southern parks and reserves including Mikumi, Udzungwa Mountains, Selous, Ruaha and Katavi receive very few visitors compared to their northern counterparts, offering true African wilderness experience.
Coastal Travel Limited chief ecologist Malcom Ryen said recently in Dar es Salaam that the company in collaboration with Rufiji district council was in the process of developing the Lake Utunge Photographic project which would be used for tourist activities.
According to the district authorities, the project was authorized last year, and the company had paid 50 percent of the cost, and the balance will be paid once the project takes off.
“We have almost completed all procedures and now we are waiting for the final decision from the councilors before the project commences,” Ryen said.
Once started the project would help villagers around to get employment, increase revenue and income through the construction of two camping sites and rehabilitation of an airstrip.
It is also expected that the project will also help reduce criminal activities such as poaching and illegal logging, since the area would be under surveillance.
Utunge area which covers 350 km is a home to various species of animal, including elephants, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, impala, lions, leopard and even the rare wild dog, whereas there is no human population.
Experts in the tourism industry are optimistic that cultural tourism resources will continue to serve as a base for the Tanzania tourism industry.
Tanzania expects to earn USD 1.35 billion from tourism in 2009, up from a projected USD 1.2 billion in 2008, helped by increased marketing in North America and Europe,
According to the Tanzania Tourist Board, Tanzania is renowned for its national parks and reserves such as the Serengeti in the north, the Selous in the southeast and for its beaches along its eastern coastline and on the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar.
Last year Tanzania received 719,030 tourists, fetching just over USD 1 billion, making the sector the leading foreign exchange earner.
Tanzania’s main tourism markets are Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. Tanzania also receives a sizeable number of tourists from South Africa and Kenya.
Tourism employs around 200,000 Tanzanians directly and accounts for around a quarter of Tanzania’s total foreign exchange inflows.
Cash at vaults safe and sound – Bank of Tanzania
By The Express Reporter, Dar es Salaam
The Bank of Tanzania has denied reports that featured in one of the local papers that some of the security equipment at the bank is defective, and has announced that it wishes to inform the general public that cash in vaults is safe and sound.
A statement issued by BOT in Dar es Salaam Tuesday, and of which The Express has a copy explains that the information featured in the media might have been picked up in the 2006/07 bank of Tanzania Financial Report which was completed in May 2008.
“During the course of audit, auditors observed areas that require improvements and accordingly made recommendations that were included in the Management Audit Report in accordance with the International Standards on Auditing (ISA),” reads part of the statement.
The statement further reveals that such findings and recommendations falls under General Business Observation, Security and IT Environment, Regulatory Compliance and Financial Controls.
“It is worth noting that since then, some of such Auditors’ recommendations have already been addressed and others are in the process of being implemented by the management,” part of the statement reads.
As regards observation under General Business Observation, Security and IT Environment, the security equipment in the old 10 Mirambo was commissioned in 2001.
The equipment is fitted with 115 monitoring cameras. Out of these only two cameras were found defective during the auditing exercise. Of the two defective cameras, one was placed at a vehicle holding bay outside while the other was inside the strongroom.
“However, the two defective cameras inside and outside the strong room have been replaced with new working cameras since,” the statement stressed.
The statement further revealed that the Bank of Tanzania is in the process of linking the current strongroom operations to the new twin tower buildings, which admittedly are fitted with ultra modern security equipment.
It is further revealed that all cameras monitor and record various events in and outside the strongroom. These tasks are and continue to be implemented with the highest degree of precision.
In tandem to this, similar steps of close monitoring of all cameras continue to be taken and whenever defects are detected, measures to rectify them including repairing or replacement with new ones are being taken on a continuous basis.
The Management of the Bank has been taking appropriate measures whenever defects in the security system including the cameras are detected, to ensure that the Bank’s security is not in any way compromised.
Kilimanjaro Kempinski introduces power lunch
By The Express Reporter, Dar es Salaam
The Kilimanjaro Hotel Kempinski has recently launched the “Power Lunch” concept in its award winning Oriental Restaurant.
A statement issued in Dar es Salaam this week indicates that the set 4 course oriental menu is offered for lunch and takes only one hour from start to finish. The menu is changed daily so that diners can enjoy a refreshing change in case they dine frequently.
According to the statement, the concept is extremely popular in international city restaurants as the value proposition is ideal for businessmen or executives with limited time available for lunch. “Power lunch” is served from Tuesdays to Fridays between 12:30 and 14:30.
According to the hotel’s food and beverage manager, Bernd Conrad, “The motto of this product is: Your time is precious. Thus it is our endeavour to provide our guests with the oriental tastes they love and with the speed of service they need,”
Conrad further says that on the first day of the launch the concept was much appreciated by all who enjoyed it.
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