This was taken from IPPMedia.com, Juy 18. Extremely shocking and scary at the same time. Imagine a scenario where Dar is bombed and everything in it destroyed! That in simple terms will mean 70% of our wealth will go with it and only 30% is what will be left of our economy. Another indicator of this shocking statistic is that, as according to U.N. by 2030, 2/3 of Tanzania's population(appr. 20mil) will be in Dar!
To avoid this catastrophic scenario, we better act now and begin expanding other cities and most importantly, take all major government offices including central bank to Dodoma, the capital city and leave Dar as the country's centre of commerce.
If we dont act, our little rediculous economy will starve and things will get ugly and messy!!

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An economist has mentioned Dar es Salaam city as the nucleus of the national economy as it controls about 70 percent of all cash in circulation.

The balances of 30 percent circulate upcountry, a trend which economists have faulted as not gracious to sustainable and regionally balanced growth of the national economy.

Dr Daniel Ngowi, research associate at the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) said recently that concentration of money circulation to the tune of 70 percent for Dar es Salaam only ``was not a healthy sign of the economy``.

While Dar es Salaam controls 70 percent of national cash, Mwanza, Arsuha and Mbeya jointly command 15 percent.

``Unless such a trend is reversed to facilitate fairly distribution of money circulation to other regions, government�s efforts to increase incomes of households in rural areas is likely to fail`` he said.

Money circulation is one of the indicators of the level of economic activities taking place in a certain area as it has a link and influence on the purchasing power of residents in that location.

Dr. Ngowi made those observations during his recent presentation on ``Tanzania Budget System and Donor Strategies``, a component of policy analysis and development strategies familiarisation training to media Personnel at the ESRF Conference Hall in Dar es Salaam.

Tuning to Tanzania`s budgetary process, he said it was relatively efficient and transparent as it enhanced both bottom �up (from grassroots levels) to the top (ministerial level) and vice versa.

Dr. Ngowi gave example of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Public Expenditure Review (PER) processes which have provided forums where many stakeholders are involved to influence budget process--including the civil society representatives.

In similar ways, he said, Tanzania Assistance Strategy (TAS) has played major role in harmonising aid support to the nation by ``facilitating improved ownership of the development process, reporting, joint planning, and accounting of budgetary expenditures``.

He however admitted that the main challenge facing the government was how to improve public expenditure accountability, targeting to get optimal benefits for each shilling spent, as well as enlargement of the current tax base.

To enlarge domestic tax base would entail bringing more tax payers in the ``tax net`` with view to increasing national tax collection to finance government socio-economic programmes.

He said that despite government target to reduce donor dependence from 42 to 35 percent, government revenue collections were still thin compared to available resource endowments such as minerals and forestry which had not yet fully contributed to the nation coffers.

During discussions, the participants agreed that the government also needed to reverse its grant disbursement in line with its objectives of allowing trickle down development at local government levels.

The current arrangement provides for 70 percent of total national budget be expended by the central government, while the balances of 30 percent are allocated to councils.

Various views hinted that increasing budget support to local governments would hasten economic progress to the rural areas and eventually to households, as long as judicious expenditure was guaranteed.

Yet, participants advised that building capacity of local governments, particularly at district, ward and village levels to enable then understand more fully the budget process and their role in developing budget plans as well as government plans to eradicate poverty was imperative.

by Perege Gumbo,