Mwapachu, Mengi solutions to doing business

A month has passed since we buried industrialist and media mogul Reginald Mengi.

The famous meeting last Friday between President John Magufuli and Tanzanian business people brought sharply to the core issues which Dr Mengi confronted and brought forth in his book I can, I Must, I will.

Dr Mengi’s book, together with yet another gem of a book, Tanzania In the Age of Change and Transformation by Ambassador (rtd) Juma Mwapachu answer just about all the issues that were raised by the business persons and the answers that President Magufuli and his team had.

In a summary on page 13 of his book Mwapachu notes, “Tanzania like many other countries face a continuing abrupt collision with the future. It has no choice.

The very pace and nature of the change - social, political, cultural, economic and technological is disruptive. It is a the type of environment Charles Dickens captures in the opening line of a Tale of Two Cities - it was the best of times and the worst of times….it was a spring of hope, it was a winter of despair….

Continues Mwapachu; “whether we like it or not, Tanzania faces global uncertainty; It cannot choose its neighbours; it cannot shore itself from terrorism that afflict others; it cannot stop the rise of new actors in the social milieu by the very reality of the changing demographics with new demands of such millennials who are increasingly connected via social media, it cannot upset the inflection point where the balance between the individual and the state is increasingly influenced by a new democratic culture and urbanization……it cannot stop the media playing its gatekeeping role and finally, Tanzania’s ability to face these challenges demand a spring of hope and a leadership to quote Chairman Mao Zedong in a 1957 speech, “hundreds of flowers to bloom and a hundred thoughts to contend.”

On page 137 in I Can, I must I will, Mengi says the debate about policy focus on developing peasant agriculture via opening agriculture to commercial farming is unhelpful in the context of the economic realities of the day….Tanzania today only uses 15 per cent of its land wile studies have shown with commercial farming Ruvu basin can feed all the other East African countries, Kilombero can feed the whole of Central Africa, Rufiji Basin the whole of Northern Africa.

The advantage of opening up to commercial agriculture is that our country would move from low income generating commodity agriculture into agri-business which, through value chains create new value-adding industries that crucially drive job creation and tax revenues.

Two views from two doyens who have been there done that and experienced the realities they speak not just locally but internationally out there. In the televised meet up with business persons it was quite obvious to me that the gems in these two books have yet to be read and internalized especially so by our policy makers.

In his case now, Mengi speaking to us from beyond the grave, is saying what we need to do policy wise but have been afraid of doing because we romanticize peasant agriculture. Tanzania needs to embrace commercial agriculture and it needs an enabling policy environment to succeed.

There really is nothing new in what Mengi is saying. Studies have shown that and the potential is there. Not so long ago, MP Peter Serukamba was at pains to explain the same in Parliament.

In easier to digest terms Mwapachu is saying, contrary to our public posturing, we have no choice but to consider all our policy decisions in the context of changes we cannot claim to be in control of. And boy do we love to posture as Foreign Minister recently declared.

We have refused to see that the world has changed and we need to change to cope with it. We want the virtues of middle income economy without the sacrifices.

We hope for Kilombero Valley or Kilimanjaro Mountain to somehow miraculously transform into green bucks in Bank of Tanzania. Read and act on Mengi and Mwapachu’s advise. The answers are all hidden in plain sight in those two books.

Kasera Nick Oyoo is a research and communications consultant with Midas Touché East Africa.