Flyover project: Govt should make good use of WB funds

What you need to know:

President John Magufuli this week laid the foundation stone for the construction of a multi-million dollar flyover at the Ubungo junction of Morogoro and Mandela roads. What is your opinion on the World Bank funded project?

The decision to involve the World Bank in the building of a state-of-the art flyover at the Ubungo intersection of Mandela and Morogoro roads in Dar es Salaam is welcome considering that there will be guaranteed funds to see the mega infrastructure project through in time. There is no running away from the fact that such huge projects require a lot of money and leaving that burden on taxpayers, as the government had suggested for other projects may be shooting ourselves in the foot. However, even as there is general excitement about the World Bank’s interest in working with the fifth phase government, there is still need to guard against abuse of funds because these monies do not come cheap -- it’s a global fact that the Bretton Woods institutions tie a lot of strings to their financing of any project in this part of the world. So, the free advice that the President needs here is for him to keep a tight leash on his subordinates to ensure that Tanzania makes the most out of this project. Otherwise, we will end up counting the loss.