Tanzanian woman wins top accolade

Ms Maida Waziri

What you need to know:

Ms Maida Waziri – who is chief executive officer and managing director for Ibra Contractors Limited – was named as such during the 7th All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Nairobi during the weekend, the event organisers – the 2017 All Africa Business Leader Awards (AABLA) - said in a statement yesterday.

        Dar es Salaam. Maida Waziri of Tanzania has been named East Africa Entrepreneur of the Year in East Africa (2017), thanks to her investment in new technology in building roads and houses.

Ms Maida Waziri – who is chief executive officer and managing director for Ibra Contractors Limited – was named as such during the 7th All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Nairobi during the weekend, the event organisers – the 2017 All Africa Business Leader Awards (AABLA) - said in a statement yesterday.

Ibra Contractors Limited specialises in civil and road works as well as general construction.

She is the most known woman entrepreneur in Tanzania’s construction industry, having grown her business in a span of about 20 years from simple house renovations to putting up a multimillion dollar project for the public and private sector. Earlier this year, Ms Maida Waziri introduced a new technology that has greatly simplified the building of roads and houses.

Ibra Contractors has formed a business association with the National Distributors of Claycrete Tanzania who import an innovative, international soil stabilizer called ‘Claycrete’.

Ms Maida Waziri is herself the national co-ordinator for Claycrete Tanzania Limited in the release of the road construction product in Tanzania. The innovative product was invented in Australia and has been used internationally in road construction for 20 years.

Claycrete is used in road construction to stabilise clay-bearing gravels (either existing clay gravel roads or imported murrum).

Specifically, it can reduce the capital cost of unsealed roads by up to 50 per cent; provide harder bound unsealed roads; provide roads with less dust; provide roads with improved water impermeability and lower road maintenance costs among others.

According to the statement, Ms Maida Waziri and other winners in various categories will now go on to compete with Southern and Western African winners in the AABLA Finale on November 30th in Sandton in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“On behalf of the 2017 AABLA in Partnership with CNBC Africa, we congratulate you on your victory,” the statement reads.