EDITORIAL: WE HAIL MANSA PLATFORM FOR BOLSTERING SMEs
One of the good news published in our edition yesterday was on the rolling out in the East African Community (EAC) economic bloc of the Mansa Digital Platform.
ThePlatform (MDP) is really the ‘African Customer Due Diligence Platform’ which “provides a single primary source of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) data required to conduct customer due diligence checks on counterparties in Africa. This is with a special focus on African corporates, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and financial institutions. Designed and intended to bolster and boost intra-continental trade across Africa, the platform was formally launched at the General Meeting of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Abuja, Nigeria, on July 11-14, 2018 [AAM2018].
Headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, Afreximbank was formed in Abuja in October 1993 by African Governments; African private and institutional investors, non-African financial institutions and private investors principally for the purposes of financing, promoting and expanding intra-African and extra-African trade.
With the foregoing in mind, we are happy to note that the East African Business Council (EABC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a partnership with Afrieximbank on rolling out the Mansa Digital Platform in our part of the world. Signed in Arusha on Wednesday, the partnership will be a game-changer that especially sees to SMEs and other businesses functionally harness the opportunities that abound not only within the regional socioeconomic integration bloc, but also in the African Continental Free Trade Area stakes (AfCFTA) – doing so through and by readily “accessing a centralized source of due diligence.” According to the EABC executive director, Mr John-Bosco Kalisa, this is bound to boost the share of the six-nation EAC in the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 16 percent, boost foreign direct investments and strengthen value chains. To that very noble end, we hail the Mansa Platform, for bolstering economies at the regional and continental levels
LET’S DO MORE FOR SPORTS
Recently, the government announced it had allocated Sh1.5 billion for sports development. This is good news indeed for sports in Tanzania
In recent times, the country has not won any medals in international sports competitions like the Olympics, the World Athletics Championships, or Commonwealth Games...
The reason behind this unimpressive performance is basically the lack of effective strategies to prepare our youth for highly-competitive tournaments. The failure of Athletics Tanzania (AT) to send Junior runners to the World Championships in Nairobi last month is a good case study. AT even failed to select two Junior runners to represent the country under the ‘Universalities’ principle!
This is most disappointing for a country with huge potential in youth with latent talent that only needs to be identified and developed to excel at national, regional, continental and global championships. In that regard, the relevant authorities, including sports bodies, must commit themselves to developing sports across the board – and actually walk their talk in this.
After all, if our U-23 national football team could win the Cecafa Challenge Cup in the competition that was held in Ethiopia recently: why can’t our competitors in other sports lines do likewise? We hope the Sh1.5 billion allocated recently for sports development will do the trick and squarely put Tanzania on the world map of sports.
