Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA: THE government through the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) has provided a subsidy totalling 865bn/- to needy households both in Mainland and Zanzibar for alleviating poverty.
The fund is the sum of all transferred cash to eligible households by the government since TASAF kicked off operation in 2000.
Speaking in a press conference held on Monday in Dodoma, Minister of State in the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance), Mr George Simbachamwene highlighted the government achievement in fighting poverty through TASAF as the country marks 60 years of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
Detailing the government efforts in alleviating poverty through provision of financial support to the needy households, he said TASAF provided 824bn/- to 1.3 poor households in Mainland while 41bn/- was transferred to 50,818 households in Zanzibar.
Mr Simbachawene said the subsidy has been playing a critical role in enabling targeted citizens meet their basic needs, including food, taking their children to schools as well as medical services.
“TASAF in a great extent has enabled to improve people’s livelihoods,” he said.
Mr Simbachawene explained that the country’s social action fund has reduced absolute poverty by 8 per cent. He said the evidence pertaining to improvement of citizen’s livelihood are palpable by considering an increase in the number of people participating in economic production after being financially capacitated.
Furthermore, he said the number of students’ enrolment from the poor families in the country has increased by six per cent. In another development, he said TASAF has been formulating various development projects that engage the needy households to acquire temporary jobs to boost their income.
He said over 27,000 projects in Mainland was implemented in 9,891 villages and streets which provided temporary earning to 626,620 people who were paid 110bn/-. Concurrently, Mr Simbachawene noted that TASAF in Zanzibar established 704 projects in 244 wards (shehia) which benefited over 35,700 people who were paid 13bn/-.
He said since its establishment in 2000, TASAF has been implemented in three phases, namely the first phase which spanned from 2000 to 2005, the second phase between 2005 to 2013 and the on-going third phase covering 2012 to 2025.
Furthermore, Mr Simbachawene said all the phases have been alleviating poverty by upgrading the wellbeing of individual citizens and the country at large through improvement of social services, including water, health, education services and road networks expansions.
In instilling entrepreneurship spirit at family level, he said the government has been capacitating TASAF beneficiaries with financial managerial skills, including formation of social funds that enable people to raise capital for investment in different development projects.
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