A seemingly well-meant project that came a cropper, the Machinga Complex in Dar es Salaam, gives the impression that it was undertaken without ample fore-planning.
Barring luck, no meaningful progress can be achieved without proper planning. To plan is to look ahead, to see from our mind’s eye what the future will be as a result of what we are set to do today.
A seemingly well-meant project that came a cropper, the Machinga Complex in Dar es Salaam, gives the impression that it was undertaken without ample fore-planning.
The impressive structure, which was meant to enable our struggling youth who literally march the width and breadth of Dar es Salaam City—popularly known as machingas—looking for customers, is virtually empty, ten years after it was opened.
What could gone been wrong? It is clear the targeted beneficiaries aren’t impressed, so they are shunning it. Our traders would rather lay their merchandise on the pavements outside the complex rather than inside it. They want to trade where they can stop pedestrians and even motorists and woo them to buy their wares.
A trader with a cubicle at the complex says she earns more by giving out her merchandise to hawkers who venture into the streets and get buyers, each of whom could earn as much as Sh30,000 per day while all she garners indoors is Sh5,000 on a good day!
The complex, having been built at the cost of Sh12.7 billion—a loan from National Social Security Fund—and run by the Dar es Salaam City Council, is not generating enough to repay the loan whose amount has reached Sh38 billion. And that isn’t because it is half empty, no! Even if all the 4,000 stalls were occupied, only Sh124.8 million per month (Sh1.5 billion annually) would be collected, which is a mere 60 per cent of what the lender wants to be paid.
Unless our people are psyched into believing in doing business in a streamlined fashion, our planners should need to rethink carefully before spending public money ostensibly with the aim of, say, taming the machingas.
KUDOS TO ENT SPECIALISTS
We are heartened by the assurance made by Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) that from January next year, specialists at the health facility will be able to reverse hearing loss in children.
On Sunday, MNH executive director Lawrence Museru revealed that, by using a special device known as Cochlea Implant, the Tanzanian surgeons specialising in ear, nose and throat (ENT), will now restore hearing in children aged below one year.
We hail the government for sending a team of experts to India for training on how to carry out the complex procedure, bearing in mind that their expertise will enable Tanzania to save millions of shillings.
As Mr Museru observed, it costs some Sh80 million for a child whose inner ears are damaged to undergo treatment abroad.
It is with this realisation that the government is committed to ensure that health service delivery in the country is improved, and our doctors have the needed skills to treat patients.
It is exciting to note that Tanzanian ENT experts are already making preparations for the interventions, come January 2017.
This will not only reduce dependence on foreign surgeons; it will also ensure children with ear problems receive high quality treatment at our own referral hospital.
