Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE World Bank (WB) Board of Directors is scheduled to meet soon to discuss various financial requests tabled by Tanzania for execution of various development projects.
The WB Vice-President for East and Southern Africa, Dr Hafez Ghanem revealed that in his talk with Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba on the sidelines of annual meeting for WB and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was done virtually.
He said that the meeting by WB Board of Directors will facilitate timely delivery of the funds. Dr Ghanem also commended Tanzania for the ongoing initiatives being taken to improve the economy and living standards of the people in general.
On his side, Dr Nchemba commended the WB for supporting Tanzania with over 12.6tril/-that have been channelled for implementation of different development projects.
The Minister said part of the money – 1.167bn US dollars (around 2.69tril/-) were issued for executing five development projects on education, infrastructures, electricity as well as Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the sake of building an inclusive economy and fighting corruption.
“The money had been released for implementation of 26 projects being supported under the WB’s International Development Association (IDA) that are worth 5.502bn Us dollars,” Dr Nchemba affirmed.
According to him, out of 26 projects, 21 that are worth 4.804bn Us Dollars are implemented at the national level and the remaining five that are worth 0.696bn/- are executed at regional levels. He said, so far a total of 1.932bn US dollars equivalent to 35 per cent of the total budget has been issued.
The minister also explained the number of initiatives taken, that were aimed to mitigate economic effects of the Covid-19, saying the government is implementing a one year strategic initiative that will cost 3.62tril/-.
“The government has received a concession loan amounting to 1.3trl/- from IMF for the sake of mitigating the economic impacts of Covid-19,” he said, adding the money has been channeled to construct infrastructures on water, education, health as well as improving tourism sector in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.
He further stated that the government is finalising talks with the WB for the former to secure funds for implementation of two projects on lands and enhance knowledge on basic education.
Speaking further on the education sector, the minister said a total of 198,620 students dropped from primary schools and 113,484 from secondary schools for different reasons, including truancy, indiscipline, pregnancy and death.
The government is taking different measures to address the matter, including coming up with a Secondary Education Quality Improvement Programme (SEQUIP) aimed at improving the quality of basic education being funded by the WB and other stakeholders.
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