He might have shed some light on his economic vision and already have the blueprint of the national development mission in mind, but what the nation expects of him is easy to tell.
Some analysts argue that the economic priorities of ‘Team Magufuli’ do not necessarily call for an understanding of the fundamentals of macroeconomic management. They say one just needs to be clear on the consequences of economic mismanagement and failure to properly harness the country’s abundant resources to understand what the new government ought to zero in on.
To these people, most of them development experts, nobody can spell out Tanzania’s development challenges to the new leader better than the ordinary people who know next to nothing on double-digit inflation and other concepts or terms of the like. These are the folks who can hardly afford two square meals a day.
In other words, the incoming (Magufuli) administration already has its job cut when it comes to better managing the national economy, ensuring equitable economic growth and creating a proper environment to allow productive activities to thrive.Some critics believe that there is even no need to spell out the agenda or streamline the priorities, suggesting that these are well known and strategies to execute them are among the best refined in the world.
According to them, it would be a cruel waste of time and a reflection of the “business as usual syndrome” that has been one of the explanations for Tanzania’s failure to start seriously debating what has befallen the nation – including workable ways to address economic mishaps.
“The new President is very lucky because he has been spared the need to conduct studies and engage experts to help him know that Tanzanians want him to do for them to prosper,” said Dar es Salaam taxi driver Godwin Mugisha.
“Being a person whose popularity emanates from not being scared to take risks, a diligent worker and a man of action, the incoming President will waste no time in facing the challenges head on straight away,” a resident of Magomeni Mikumi in Dar es Salaam said, preferring anonymity.
Another taxi driver, who is based near NSSF’s Benjamin Mkapa Tower in Dar es Salaam’s central business district, was “confident that after years of leadership challenges everything is now a priority for our country”.
To him, whether Dr Magufuli knows what the people really need or want and understands how to address those needs and wants will depend on what he does in the early days of his leadership.
He said among the challenges the president will have to handle will be the type of people he picks as close aides, the size of the government he forms and the other lieutenants he will go for. Equally important would be the number of issues the chemistry guru will deal with immediately while committing himself and his team to realistic timelines to deliver on them.
According to Dr Antipas Massawe, nothing spells out better what the new regime should prioritise than the three recently published surveys on global wealth, the wellbeing of nations, the productivity of economies and the ease of doing business.
In all of these, he said, Tanzania fares poorly and compares badly with its peers who are its major business and investment rivals. On the global competitiveness plane, the country has no clout against even its partners in the five-member East African Community bloc except Burundi.
So is in the regulation league to allow creation of enterprises. In the just-released prosperity index, which is a measure of global progress based not only on wealth accumulation, Tanzania yet again ranks poorly.
“Tanzania ranks 117th globally in the 2015 Prosperity Index, having kept its place since last year,” say the authors of the survey, London-based think tank The Legatum Institute. It rates 142 countries across eight categories: the Economy, Entrepreneurship & Opportunity; Governance; Education; Health; Safety & Security; Personal Freedom; and Social Capital.
“Tanzania’s best performance is in the Social Capital sub-index, where it ranks 78th this year. Tanzania’s lowest rank is in the Education sub-index, where it ranks 125th in 2015,” adds the index.
As studies have often indicated, the Magufuli administration cannot deliver as expected on its agenda without addressing problems with the infrastructure generally.
Revamping agriculture is another area many people would like to see the new government focusing on. Others include supply of reliable power and ensuring taxes are paid by all supposed to do so. Many experts interviewed said “everything” it would take to alleviate poverty should be a priority – and the list is endless.
“According to National Bureau of Statistics, 28 per cent of Tanzania’s population still lives in abject poverty. The incoming government should target annual growth of not less than eight per cent, which ought to be inclusive,” said Dr Donald Mmari, acting executive director of Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA).
He said industrialisation was among the items of choice on the president-elect’s campaign agenda, “and it is therefore another aspect widely regarded to be among the keys to move Tanzania out of the underdevelopment quagmire”.
Maritime industry and logistics experts see a unique opportunity in suggestions that Dr Magufuli should consider establishing a full-fledged ministry to address hiccups haunting the sector. Their thinking is that an efficiently run Dar es Salaam port alone was enough to fund the government’s budget to satisfaction.
“We need to create an environment that will enable us to lure more Tanzanian and foreign investors. Empowerment of local investors and local content on oil and gas sectors should be considered,” Tanzania National Business Council executive secretary Raymond Mbilinyi told The Guardian yesterday. He echoed the lobby, which sees the best possible solution to Tanzania’s problems in the improvement of the investment environment.
Outgoing Special Seats legislator and VICOBA (village community banks) national chairperson Devotha Likokola meanwhile said women empowerment was a must for the incoming government to make smooth and meaningful headway.
Seventh Day Adventist Church evangelist Philemon Daud of Kitunda in suburban Dar es Salaam said Dr Magufuli’s government would best hope to meet people’s expectations “through noticeable creation of jobs for the country’s youth and developing a robust agro-processing sector”.
Prof Alphonce Kessy of Ardhi University meanwhile argued that small scale industries were “everything to Tanzanians owing to its potential to propel the country’s industrial revolution”.
But Albert Richard, head of operations at Universal Communication Service Access Fund in Dar e Salaam, said: “ICT is now one of the key drivers of economic growth in the world. Therefore, the new government should devise and implement more ICT-based projects.”
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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