AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIAN economists have received the news of the classification of the country as a lower middle-income economy with joy, saying it is an achievement to be proud of as a nation.
Prof Ester Ishengoma of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) said it was an achievement that the country had attained ahead of the envisioned 2025.
She said the nation must ensure it maintained it so that there could be no slowdown in building the economy.
“It is now time for every Tanzanian to work hard. We must remain focused on where we are going,” she noted.
The Microfinance and Small Business Development professor noted that, with the nation having a high population of young people, it was time to utilise the opportunity in the country.
“There is a need to continue educating the youth so that they can be aggressive in their activities. This will boost the establishment and development of various economic activities,” she noted.
Orbit Securities Head of Research and Analytics Imani Muhingo said more efforts should be made to ensure economic growth was maintained and sustainable above the population growth and inflation.
He also emphasised the improvement of the manufacturing sector to avoid the middle-income economy trap. Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) Chief Executive Officer Moremi Marwa said attaining the lower middle- income economy status was good news for everybody.
“We appreciate collective efforts made by all of us to reach at this stage led by our President John Magufuli. For DSE, this is in line with what we achieved last year. As you may recall we achieved the classification of frontier market status by FTSE Russell,” he said.
University of Dodoma (Udom) lecturer Paul Loisulie said the move had brought joy and hope to all Tanzanians.
“These successes must guide us to achieve more and implement our plans as a nation. This step means there is a great improvement in our economy,” he noted.
Research on Poverty Alleviation (Repoa) Director of research, Dr Lucas Katera, said the classification of Tanzania as a middle-income economy was good news to every Tanzanian.
“This shows that our efforts as a nation are recognized. This is great honour to our nation,” he said.
On Wednesday, the WB officially classified Tanzania as a lower middle-income economy under its latest country income classifications.
Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Philip Mpango, unveiled this in Dodoma, saying great strides had been made five years ahead of the National Development Vision, 2025.
President John Magufuli, who is credited for spearheading key economic reforms and leading the country towards achieving its middle-income economy status expressed his delight in receiving the good news through his twitter account.
