Tanzania Urges Donors To Fund Bankable Projects In Over 10 Councils

By Michael Sikapundwa [caption id="attachment_104317" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Deputy Permanent Secretary in the President’s office, Regional Administration and Local Government ( PO-RALG ), Dr Grace Magembe( L) hands over a certificate of participation in capacity building on the preparation of bankable projects to Dar es Salaam city's planning officer, Mpossi Gwakisa( R).Photo Michael Sikapundwa[/caption] The government of Tanzania has called upon public and private financial institutions to fund bankable projects in 13 councils so they may stop relying on subsidies from the national government. The call was made over the weekend by Dr. Grace Magembe, deputy permanent secretary in the president's office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), who oversaw the closing ceremony of capacity-building training for more than fifty regional secretariat economists, municipal and district planners at the Morogoro hotel. Magembe said councils must have sustainable bankable projects as training has already set the establishment of special purpose vehicles ( SPV ). She requested financial institutions to issue them loans since training is based on creating big projects which pay on time. ''This an effective approach to increase councils' revenue and life standard of an individual,’’ she said. The training included concept notes and business plan writing, presentation of concept notes from 13 Local Government Authorities( LGA), finalizations of concept notes, pre-feasibility study data gathering, study report writing and project financial analysis. She used the opportunity to congratulate the Mtwara Municipal council ( MC ) for the estimated initial investment costs, which target the construction of pre-and Primary English Medium Schools. On his part, United Nations Development Program ( UNDP )’s representative Emmanuel Nnko called upon the government to implement the projects and not leave them on paper. The 13 councils are Arusha city, Bumbuli District, Dar es Salaam city, Kahama, Korogwe district, Mlele District, Mlimba District, Mtwara, Njombe Town, Nzega Town, Ruangwa District, Songea Municipal and Tunduma Town. The ten days training was sponsored by United Nations Development Program ( UNDP ) and facilitated by the Institute of Rural Development Planning ( IRD )  with PO-RALG’s cooperation.