Plan to groom and market CEOs on

Saturday, January 25, 2020 — updated on November 01, 2020 - 3 min read

The deputy minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled), Anthony Mavunde (centre) receives a present from the Chief Executive Officer Round Table (CEOrt) chairman, Sanjay Rughani (left), as an appreciation for his contribution to local companies during an event that was held in Dar es Salaam. At right is the CEOrt executive director, Ms Santina Benson. PHOTO | SAID KHAMIS

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A database is expected to be established, from which investors and companies will have the chance to draw candidates for top positions

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s private sector leaders are working closely with the government to streamline a process of identifying, grooming and marketing local chief executive officers (CEO) in an effort to minimise foreigners dominance.
This comes following complaints of skills gaps from several local companies.
A database is expected to be established, from which investors and companies will now have a chance to get would-be candidates for top positions.
The government said the database would list the names of the persons and market them to the employers.
The Chief Executive Officers Round Table (CEOrt) has initiated an apprenticeship programme to train and mentor the youth with skills to hold top positions.
The database will start by listing the names and profiles of 16 apprentices, who are currently training under the CEO Apprenticeship Programme (CAP), according to deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Labour, Youth, Employment and Persons with Disability Antony Mavunde.
“It hurts to issue and re-new work permits to foreign experts every year. They hold top positions with an excuse that locals are not qualified,” he noted.
Through the database, according to him, investors or companies will choose candidates from the listed names instead of hiring foreigners for the positions.
Chairman of CEOrt Sanjay Rughan said the 12-month based programme, CAP, is at the fourth month of its completion under the supervision of Strathmore Business School.
“The programme follows international syllabuses and guidelines, making the candidates being competitive in local and global job markets,” he said.
The completion of the CAP phase one in September will open another phase with at least 20 candidates from public and private institutions.
According to him, upon the completion of the programme participants will have acquired the right skills, enhancing their leadership capabilities including self-awareness, effective decision-making and developing new ways of approaching leadership challenges to become future CEOs.
“The 16 trainees are from private companies, who volunteered to pay for their workers to learn, but we plan to involve public officers next time,” he said.
The programme costs $12,000 (Sh27.66 million) per trainee, which the employer (company) pays, according an executive director of CEOrt Ms Santina Benson.
“There was no candidates from public institutions. We are planning to source some funds for them to participate in the forthcoming phase,” she said.
CEOrt vision, according to her, is to increase the number of local CEOs in local and multi-national companies.
Taking an example of the CEOrt, Ms Benson said 53 per cent of 150 members are Tanzanians, but the majority (85 per cent) are those who established their own businesses.
“The remaining 43 per cent is covered by foreign expertise who works with large multi-national operating companies. Our target is to see more Tanzanians being hired in those companies in the future,” she said.
Unguu Sulay is one of the CAP trainees representing Plasco Company as chief financial official officer.
He said the training has helped him with communication skills and making decision in different departments in the organisation.
“I am an accountant by profession, but I have learnt how to make decisions in human resources, increase production and legal departments,” he said.