THE Parliamentary Standing Committee for Energy and Minerals has urged the government to ban imports of electrical equipment in order to protect local manufacturers.
The Committee Chairman, Dustan Kitandula made the call over the weekend when the members visited the Dar es Salambased AFRICAB industry, advising that: It is high time for the government to ban importation of electrical equipment, especially currently when local industries have given the task to produce for implementation of electricity projects, carried by Rural Energy Agency (REA) and Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO).
“There is every reason for the government to make sure that it restricts the importation, so as protect local manufactures as well as to avoid damaging domestic market. Again, the industries should be paid in time when the governments orders for equipment. This will serve as motivation for them and give them power to more production,” he said.
He added, “We have all witnessed the best work of all industries we succeeded to visit, including this one. They have shown high level of capacity in production of electrical equipment, hence, removing the necessity of importation,” The Chairperson appraised the work done by AFRICAB, saying its manufacturing speed has been matching with that (speed) of engineers, who are implementing various electrical projects.
He also urged manufacturers to take time in searching international markets as they have capacity to produce beyond their targets and local market demand.
Deputy Minister of Energy, Ms Subira Mgalu, stressed that the government intends to strictly ban electrical equipment importation, affirming that currently, it has already banned importation of the cables.
She confirmed that the government has formed the special committee to investigate on whether local manufacturers are able to produce enough equipment for homes ‘electrical connections.
Once there is a good performance, then importation ban will be obvious.
“The government will continue to be close with local manufactures so as they can effectively fulfill their responsibilities, especially this time when they are producing for implementation of various projects, including the strategic ones, which have been carried out by the government,” she said.
Earlier, AFRICAB Executive Director, Mr Mohammed Ezzi, said that apart from cables and other homes electrical equipment’s manufacturing, the industry has been producing high-quality transformers, hence no need of importations.
He stressed that the industry has capacity to produce beyond the target, urging the government to have the trust with local manufacturers while encouraging the public to abandon wrong beliefs that imported goods are better than local ones.
“These beliefs are discouraging us, local producers. We are able to meet local market demand and we have already secured markets abroad, mostly in Congo, Z ambia, Malawi Uganda and Kenya,” he said.
