Policies obstract industrial agenda

Dar es Salaam. The mismatch between Tanzania’s agricultural and industrial policies is having a devastating effect on the country’s industrialisation agenda, a new study has revealed, urging urgent action by the government.

A study by Repoa, which was conducted between March and July this year, has revealed that policies guiding agricultural production for cotton, iron sheets, tiles, sugarcane, cooking oil raw materials do not effectively support industrial production for textiles, sugar and cooking oil among others.

But the government said it was continuing with the task of improving policies governing the industrial sector in an effort to bring them up-to-date with the current realities.

“We are collecting views from different stakeholders on how to update our policies governing industrial development, business development, marketing and investment,” said Investment, Industry and Trade deputy minister Exaud Kighahe.

He was speaking during an event to grace the regional workshop on, ‘Coherent Strategies for Productive Capacities Development in African Least Developed Countries’ in Dar es Salaam.

“We will also prepare strategies that will help in implementing those policies. We believe that ideas from experts and the experience of other countries will assist to frame specific policies that go in line with the current environment,” he said.

According to him, good policies will help to increase production and make Tanzania’s products competitive in the regional market. This, he said, was important because Tanzania was a member of several regional trading blocs like the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African

Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“Being competitive, entails having reliable energy. It also involves proper road infrastructure to simplify the transportation of products to the market,” he said.

Earlier, Repoa’s executive director Dr Donald Mmari said the research which was funded by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) Dar es Salaam, Shinyanga, Dodoma, Arusha and Mwanza showed there were a number of policy challenges on tax and loans which hindered farmers’ access to key factor of production, thus ultimately affecting industrial production.

He said agricultural sector was key in industrial production and that low agricultural yields affected raw materials for industrial production.

“Our study shows that at one point, textile factories failed to get enough cotton or what they got was of low quality hence affecting their performance,” he said adding therefore that the study recommended the government to review policies and align them with the current realities.