AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE agriculture sector remains one of the biggest pillars of the country’s economy, where for almost five years, products from farmers contributed about 17 per cent in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the government has said.
According to the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Dotto James, the sector also increased employment opportunities by 58 per cent as of 2018.
Mr James who doubles as the country’s Pay Master General (PMG) was speaking during the official opening of the National Workshop on implementation of Warehouse Receipt System and Tanzania Mercantile Exchange (TMX) on Sesame and Cashew nut farming products.
The workshop was organized by TMX in collaboration with other stakeholders, including Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT), Warehouse Receipt Regulatory Board, Cashew nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) and Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC).
In his speech delivered here on his behalf by the Commissioner of Financial Sector Development, Dr Charles Mwamwaja, the PS said that between 2015 and 2019, the agriculture sector continued growing at an average of 5.2per cent, while the sub sector of agricultural products continued growing at an average of 5.8per cent.
Mr James insisted that based on the fact that the agriculture sector was key to the country’s economy, the government saw the importance of organizing a workshop to convene stakeholders in Sesame and Cashew nut products so as to address the challenges and increase efficiency.
“Because of this, the main agenda of this meeting is to look on supervision of Warehouse Receipt System (WRC) as well as selling of agricultural products through TMX on Sesame and Cashew nut,’’ he noted.
According to TMX Chief Executive Officer, Godfrey Malekano, his institution was the first commodity exchange in Tanzania.
