AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRESIDENT John Magufuli reign in the past five years has seen a steady growth in sports and entertainment sectors and the incumbent has promised more vitality in the next five years.
The President made this remarks during his speech to dissolve the Parliament in Dodoma yesterday, saying the two sectors contributed immensely in the growth of the country’s economy.
Magufuli said, despite not being mentioned in various occasions when it comes to its contributions to the country’s economic growth, arts and culture grew by 13.7 per cent in 2018, according to the state of economy report. It was the leading sector in terms of growth percentage wise.
He said in 2019, the sector grew by 11.2 percent according to the report and it was the third in the highest growth rate.
“We should brace for more growth in sports and entertainment sectors in the coming five years because the two, provide employment opportunities among our youths,” said Magufuli.
During President Magufuli’s five years reign, Tanzania has made great strides in sports sector especially in football, where youths programme development is slowing beginning to pay off.
And, the reality that the youth programmes have begun to pay the dividends is, at the moment made crystal clear with Under-17 team, Serengeti Boys qualification into the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Gabon.
The team went ahead to qualify for other finals hosted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last year, albeit on hosts ticket and this signifies a good trend towards the development of the game of football in the country.
In fact, having the boys going places in the U-17 continental tournament is increasingly becoming a normal good practice, but it goes to better when girls’ category is given impetus to match the boys.
This was proven by the girls’ recent performance at the Council for East and Central African Football Association (CECAFA) Under-17 tournament in Uganda.
Tanzania finished second on 11 points behind Uganda, who won the inaugural edition of the CECAFA Under-17 Girls tournament in Jinja late last year after collecting 12 points.
The country has made a notable progress in the women and girls’ football as proved by Kilimanjaro Queens, the Mainland football team, which won back to back CECAFA Women Championship before being dethroned by Kenya late last year.
During President Magufulis’ five year reign, national team, Taifa Stars qualified into the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), finals staged last year in Cairo, Egypt, for the first time after almost 30 years.
Simba also had a successful campaign in 2018/2019 CAF Champions League, in which they reached the quarterfinals, for the first time since 2003, before being bundled out by Congolese side TP Mazembe.
Tanzanian boxer Hassan Mwakinyo beat Arnel Tinampay of the Philippines on points in an entertaining international non-title bout in Dar es Salaam.
During the same period, long distance runner Alphonce Felix Simbu finished 5th with a time of 2 hour: 11 minutes and 15 seconds at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the men’s marathon.
Simbu also won the 14th edition of the Mumbai Marathon on January 15th 2017 and went ahead to win bronze at IAAF World Championships London 2017 in London Marathon, UK.
He put up a sterling performance to claim bronze in the men’s marathon, just one minute, 24 seconds adrift of Kenya’s Geoffrey Kipkorir Kirui, who won the race.
The feat ended 12 years long wait, particularly for a proud distance-running nation like Tanzania, which has no shortage of athletic talent but so often has to play second fiddle to Kenya and Ethiopia.
All these were positives Proposed construction of the ultra-modern sports complex in Dodoma is also on card, where the state had acquired 350hectres much more than 150hectres that was needed for the project.
It is said the new stadium would cost between 80million and 100million US dollars to be able to accommodate a seating capacity of between 85,000—105,000 spectators.
The President has also attended various sports events including match which pitted giants Simba and Young Africans in the Mainland Premier League encounter at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on March 8th this year.
Yanga won 1-0 courtesy a stunning set piece by Ghanaian attacker Bernard Morrison.
