State-sponsored students not bound to work in Tanzania, says govt

Energy ministry’s permanent secretary Khamisi Mwinyimvua

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Speaking yesterday in a ceremony to bid farewell to 20 students leaving for China, the Energy ministry’s permanent secretary Khamisi Mwinyimvua said currently the country has no law binding Tanzanians from working for firms outside the country.

Dar es Salaam. The government has said it has no control over state-sponsored students when it comes to their choosing where to work, despite the country facing a shortage of experts in the oil and gas sectors.

Speaking yesterday in a ceremony to bid farewell to 20 students leaving for China, the Energy ministry’s permanent secretary Khamisi Mwinyimvua said currently the country has no law binding Tanzanians from working for firms outside the country.

“The government has been making efforts to offer funding to students to increase the number of experts to satisfy the country’s needs, but it is difficult to stop someone from going to work elsewhere,” said Dr Mwinyimvua.

Until this year, a total of 100 Tanzanians have been sent to China for special training in the oil and gas sectors while the challenge remains how the country would benefit from the experts after gaining skills.

Speaking on the challenges, Dr Mwinyimvua said that to a great extent oil and gas production was being undertaken by private firms, whereas the government was unable to offer many employment opportunities to local experts.

However, he said the country’s employment laws required foreign firms to offer jobs to as many Tanzanians as possible so that the latter could benefit from internal resources.

“A lot of money is spent for lacking experts and this is because the number of Tanzanians in the sector is not big,” he said, adding the government funding programme for locals to study outside the country would help address the challenge of shortage of exerts, particularly in oil and gas.

China’s deputy ambassador to Tanzania Xu Chen urged the students to be patriotic, particulalrly in enhancing the gas sector that had a huge contribution to the nation’s economy.

“Tanzania is greatly rich in resources, but it still needs experts who can exploit them for the development of the country,” said Xu Chen.

For his part, Mr Emmanuel Kessy, who is one of the students, promised that they would be ready to serve their country after completing their studies.