WHY IS TANZANIA NOT EAC's POWERHOUSE?

By Karl Lyimo

Lexicographers tell us an ‘economy’ is the wealth and resources of a given community (such as a nation-state) in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services... and that a ‘powerhouse’ is a power station where electrical power is generated for general distribution...

By parity of reasoning, an ‘economic powerhouse’ – especially in relation to a nation-state – would be a community which excels not only in generating and managing wealth for equitable distribution among its people, but also which is a salutary example to other communities/nation-states near and far!

Now that we’re agreed on this, let’s move on to the 64-thousand dollar question: why is Tanzania NOT enough of an economic powerhouse to write home about and shout it out from the housetops?

To narrow down the scope of this: why is Tanzania NOT an economic powerhouse to reckon with in East Africa? I ask this basically because the country is decidedly the most phenomenally-endowed with ‘natural’ wealth and comparative advantages among the five member states of the EAC, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi...

Yet, with such huge potential, the country is decisively not the region’s economic powerhouse... ! Why is this the case? I ask you!

What potential natural wealth; what comparative advantages, I can mentally ‘hear’ you murmuring...

For starters: at 945,203sq.km in area, Tanzania’s size is greater by 68,688sq.km than that of the other four EAC countries combined: 876,515sq.km!

Around 885,800sq.km of Tanzania is land surface, 13 per cent of which is arable. But, only 33 per cent of that is routinely cultivated!

By comparison, 49.5 per cent of Rwanda’s 26,334sq.km is arable; 35 per cent of Burundi’s 27,834sq.km is arable; 33.8 per cent of Uganda’s 241,038sq.km land is arable, while only 9.7 per cent of Kenya’s 581,309sq.km is arable!

But, percentages don’t always give the stark picture as it is on the ground. For instance, 13 per cent arable land in Tanzania translates into 115,154sq.km, while 49.5 per cent arable land in Rwanda is a relatively measly 13,035sq.km...! In Kenya, reputedly EAC’s largest economy, a 9.75 per cent arable land is only 56,386sq.km: about a half of the arable land in Tanzania!

Yet, and yet... Tanzania miserably fails to take full advantage of the land-related comparative advantages to forge ahead of its other four EAC partners as an economic powerhouse!

Among the other comparative advantages in which the country has been wallowing and floundering for ages are its enviable geographical position and endearing geopolitics... With six landlocked neighbouring countries, three major ports on its Indian Ocean coast and considerable inland road, rail and water transport possibilities, there is no reason why Tanzania shouldn’t be an economic powerhouse not only within EAC, but also in much of Africa south of the Sahara and north of the Limpopo!

But, as the World Bank says in its report ‘Opening the Gates: How the Port of Dar es Salaam Can Transform Tanzania,’ “the country and its six landlocked neighbours are losing millions of dollars every year, as port inefficiencies and corruption hold back economic development...!” [See ‘Inefficiency at Dar port swallows up $2.6bn of GDP:’ The East African/URL: http://goo]

Tanzania is also ‘home’ to fabulous natural wealth in the forms of minerals (including diamonds, gold, tanzanite, uranium and, soon enough, oil and natural gas). That’s to say nothing of marine and forestry potentials, as well as bags-full of socio-political stability, national security and goodwill among the comity of nations.

Yet, and yet... The country’s miserably failed to effectively and fully tap into this wealth whose potential is more than enough to transform a sleeping giant into an economic powerhouse!

Why should (for instance) the per capita income of Rwanda (whose gross domestic product at the official exchange rate in 2012 was $6.3bn only) be $644 – nearly equal that of Tanzania at $703 (with five times the GDP: $32.536bn)?

What’ve we been doing wrong, or not doing at all – all odds in our favour notwithstanding – NOT to attain the coveted status of even a regional economic powerhouse which Tanzania so richly deserves? What, indeed? I ask you... Tears!

Source: The Citizen