Tanzania has spent Sh15.4 billion on Covid-19 supplies

Dar es Salaam.  Tanzania government has so far spent Sh15.49 billion to purchase medical supplies to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.  

This was said on Thursday June 11, by the Finance and Planning minister, Dr Philip Mpango while presenting the economic survey for 2019 in Parliament.

Tanzania confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 16, to date Tanzania’s reported cases of Covid-19 infections stands at 509 .   

“Tanzania has not been largely affected by the Covid-19 due to measures taken by the government,” Dr Mpango told the parliament.  

He said the government had issued tax relief to 15 different types of equipment used in the fight against the pandemic which is caused by the novel Coronavirus.  

To offset the impact of the pandemic on the economy, recently the government through the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) announced statutory monetary policy measures.

Measures include, lowering the statutory minimum reserve requirement from seven to six per cent and the level of interest at which commercial banks borrow from Bank of Tanzania (discount rate) from seven to five percent.

The actions are meant to provide commercial banks with a chance to have additional liquidity so that they could provide cheap loans to their clients.