Just to get some perspective, the global average is $27,600. For a comparison from closer to home, consider that in Mauritius, wealth per capita stands at $21,470, according to data from New World Wealth, a research firm. At the same time, there’s been a lot of wealth created over the past decade. The $480 figure is a 92% increase from 2000, when wealth per capita was at $250.
Over the same period, the number of Tanzanians with assets worth $1 million or more has more than doubled, from 1,000 people to 2,200 as of 2014. Meanwhile, the number of people able to meet basic consumption needs has risen by just over 6% since 2007, while the number of people living in extreme poverty, struggling to meet basic food needs, fell by 2 per cent, World Bank figures show.
Some of the progress is no doubt tied into the 6.3 per cent economic growth that the country has averaged over the past several years—a pace it’s expected to maintain for several years to come.As the World Bank notes in a new report assessing poverty in Tanzania, “A 10 per cent increase in GDP growth per capita can be expected to produce a 10.2 per cent decrease in the proportion of the poor.”
For the most part, however, the economic benefits have been concentrated in urban areas. Rural Tanzanians are still struggling. And social mobility is still a challenge. From 2007 to 2012, less than a third of the country’s 50 million people were able to lift themselves to a higher welfare class.
Meanwhile, 13 per cent of the population slipped into the lowest quartile for consumption, and 12 per cent of the poor found themselves stuck in chronic poverty. Still, the World Bank finds that the poor have benefited disproportionately for the past few years, despite the fact that agriculture, the primary source of income for most of the country’s poor, grew only 4.2 per cent annually from 2008 to 2013.
That lagged the country’s overall economic growth, which was driven “mainly by fast-growing and relatively capital-intensive sectors” like finance, transport, and communications, the World Bank notes.
However, the poor accumulated other kinds of improvements to their standard of living, thanks to factors like education, increased land ownership, and better infrastructure such as roads and local markets.
While it is accepted that Tanzania is one of the world’s poorest economies in terms of per capita income, it has achieved high overall growth rates based on gold production and tourism. This is confirmed by Ventures Africa, which reports that the country has enjoyed strong growth over the past decade, increasing at nearly 7 per cent between 2004 and 2013.
No less a body than the IMF estimates that the country’s economy could grow 7 per cent annually for the next few years, while pwcGlobal suggests it will become one of the fastest in the world. In addition to gold, the country is home to other minerals, including diamonds and coal. That said, Tanzania faces massive infrastructural challenges across all sectors and it requires an estimated US$6 – US$8 billion to keep up with expected infrastructure needs through to 2020.
At the time of writing, transport and utilities infrastructure projects worth US$19 billion were in the pipeline. The response by the country’s cement industry to the increase in infrastructure investment has been significant. The Dangote Group’s 3 million tpa cement plant has been complete. It is the largest cement plant in East and Central Africa.
Construction of Tanga Cement’s no. 2 clinker line is well in hand, with two Loesche vertical roller mills (one for grinding raw material and one for grinding coal) currently being installed. On completion, the total capacity of Tanga Cement’s facilities will be 3.5 million tpa.
Completion of Tanzania Portland Cement Company’s new 700 000 tpa cement mill, clinker silo and cement silo is scheduled for later this year. The company is a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement. Mbeya Cement, a subsidiary of Lafarge Tanzania, is currently upgrading its production line to increase overall capacity to 700 000 tpa.
/Daily News.
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