TANZANIA: THINGS ARE BEGINNING TO HAPPEN IN MTWARA AND LINDI

THE hitherto much underdeveloped and stigmatized southern Tanzanian regions of Mtwara and Lindi are now beginning to open up after years of neglect and abject backwardness.

Improvement of the general infrastructure, including construction of the modern bridge over Rufiji River and reconstruction of the road from Dar es Salaam to Lindi and Mtwara, previously a horrific experience to transit through, have set the development ball really rolling.

The flurry of activities that have accompanied the ongoing gas and oil exploration works, with several gas fields being discovered and now being tapped for both domestic and industrial use, are putting Mtwara and Lindi on the list of the country's economic heavyweight regions.

Apart from the two cashewnut-rich regions' great oil and gas prospects, they are also endowed with pristine Indian Ocean beaches that would vie for competition space with any other along the East African coast. Mtwara and Lindi also teem with abundant wealth of history, culture and creativity.

The famous Makonde carvings, the historical town of Mikindani, remnants of the Arab and German forts are hot items that could claim right of space in the country's tourism publicity and promotion brochures.

The two municipalities, which are their regions' headquarters, are now undergoing a faster modernisation phase as new buildings, both public and private, and first class hotels are springing up.

Almost all major local and foreign banks such as Exim Bank, Eco Bank and KCB Bank have opened branches in Mtwara. It was considered a punishment in the past to be transferred to the two southern regions, with some affected civil servants resigning from their posts just to avoid being sent to Mtwara and Lindi. Not now.

In fact it is now the other way round as people from Southern Tanzania would shudder at the prospect of being transferred away from Mtwara! Some people now happily agree to go to Mtwara on transfer.

All this would not have been possible had it not been for the deliberate strategy by the government, in all its four phases since independence now, especially so during the present phase, to bring development to Southern Tanzania.

Efforts to development and so open up the southern regions to the rest of Tanzania and the world should not relent. There should be no looking back now.