Category: The Citizen

Tanzania women’s national football team, Twiga Stars, will step up their preparations for the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) with a high profile international friendly against Nigeria in Morocco.

The match is scheduled for July 19 in Casablanca, just a week before the continental tournament kicks off on July 26, and is expected to provide the Tanzanian side with a valuable test against one of Africa’s most successful women’s football nations.

According to Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) National Teams Director Almasy Kasongo, the fixture forms part of the team’s final preparations before they begin their Wafcon campaign.

Kasongo said the squad is currently holding a residential training camp in Karatu, Arusha Region, where the technical bench has been working on improving fitness, tactical discipline and team cohesion ahead of the tournament.

The team is scheduled to leave Tanzania on Thursday for Casablanca, where it will complete the final phase of its preparations.

Besides the Nigeria encounter, Twiga Stars could also face either Ghana or Mali in another international friendly before the tournament, depending on final confirmation from the respective football associations.

“We are satisfied with the progress the team has made in Karatu. The players have responded well to the training programme, and they will leave the country on Thursday for Morocco to continue with the final phase of preparations before the tournament begins,” he said.

He said the coaching staff remains optimistic that the team will be ready to compete against some of the continent’s strongest sides.

“We believe the technical bench has prepared the team well, and we expect the players to give their best and compete strongly against some of Africa’s top teams.

The friendly matches will give us an opportunity to assess the team’s readiness and make final adjustments before the competition starts,” he said.

Twiga Stars face a difficult task after being drawn in Group B alongside defending champions South Africa, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.

Tanzania will launch their campaign against South Africa on July 27 at the Moulay Rachid Stadium in Casablanca before taking on Burkina Faso on July 31 at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Rabat.

Their final group stage match will be against Ivory Coast on August 4 at the same venue.

The tournament, which runs until August 16, will bring together Africa’s top women’s national teams and also serves as an important platform for countries to measure their progress in the rapidly growing women’s game.

For Twiga Stars, the build up matches against Nigeria and potentially Ghana or Mali are expected to provide the competitive edge needed before they embark on their quest to make a strong impression at the continental showpiece.

Tanzania is one of Africa’s major fishing nations, with the fisheries sector supporting around 6 million Tanzanians along the value chain, including 205,559 active fishers.

The government just committed Sh280.59 billion – nearly 65 percent of the entire fisheries development budget to the Kilwa Masoko Fishing Port, which reached 90 percent completion by now, positioning it as the anchor of Tanzania’s entire Blue Economy strategy

Here’s the problem: a world-class fishing port with no cold chain is just an expensive fish market. And that cold chain runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The specific gap

Inadequate cold-chain coverage adds cost and risk to seafood supply chains, and is a key constraint flagged for perishable fisheries export investments. Right now, fish landed at coastal and lake ports is either sold within hours or it rots.

Tanzania’s fishery sector directly provides jobs for about 200,000 people while 4.5 million people approximately 35 percent of rural employment indirectly depend on fishery activities. The post-harvest loss rate is estimated at 25-40 percent.

That’s hundreds of millions of dollars in protein and export revenue lost every year, not for lack of fish, but for lack of cold.

LPG-powered ice plants and blast freezers at landing sites are the single highest-impact infrastructure intervention in this value chain. Unlike grid-dependent refrigeration, LPG ice plants work anywhere – island communities, lake shores, remote coastal villages – with no dependency on Tanzania’s often unreliable electricity supply.

The business model

Fish Cold Chain Infrastructure Operator operates modular LPG-powered Containerized ice plants at strategic fish landing sites. Revenue comes from three sources:

Ice sales to fishers – fishers buy ice by the block or kg before heading out, keeping catch viable during transit. This is a well-proven model across India, Bangladesh, and West Africa.

Cold storage rental – processors and exporters rent chilled/frozen storage capacity by the day or week, bridging the gap between landing and onward transport to Dar es Salaam or export markets.

LPG bulk supply margin – as the operator, you control the LPG supply to each site. You’re not just selling ice; you’re the anchor LPG off-taker at every location, building a distributed bulk LPG consumption base entirely outside the crowded urban cooking fuel market.

Genuine unexplored LPG market

Everyone in Tanzania LPG is chasing the same household cooking customer in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza. Nobody is thinking about LPG as industrial process fuel for food preservation.

Yet the economics are compelling: a mid-sized LPG ice plant producing 5 tonnes of ice per day consumes roughly 300-400 kg of LPG daily – more than a 50-household residential cluster – and pays commercial (not subsidised) rates.

The Kilwa Masoko port investment creates a government-guaranteed demand anchor. The fishery value chain in Tanzania covers marine fisheries across the RUMAKI seascape and inland lakes – a geography that is structurally impossible to serve with grid electricity but perfectly matched to modular LPG cold chain units.

Entry advice

Start with one pilot site at Kilwa Masoko, timed to coincide with the port’s operational launch. Partner with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, which has development budget actively flowing.

Bring in an export-oriented fish processor as an anchor cold-storage tenant, who pre-commits capacity. The pilot de-risks the model and creates a replicable blueprint for 8-10 coastal and lake sites.

Tanzania Petroleum and its local and expatriate experts on LPG-run cold chain eco-system take the responsibility from the beginning of the project until it’s in the phase of revenue generation.

Hussein Boffu is a consultant specialising in feasibility studies, strategic advisory and project execution for the energy sector.

It is rare for me to finish a book and still not know how to talk about it weeks later. I finished Score by Kennedy Ryan weeks ago, yet every time I sat down to write this review, I found myself staring at a blank page.

At first, I thought it was because I had enjoyed Reel, the first book in the Hollywood series, more than this one. But the more I reflected, the more I realised that wasn’t the reason at all.

The truth is, Score asks its readers to confront bipolar disorder, an illness we rarely talk about openly in Tanzania. We speak more comfortably about physical illnesses than mental ones. Even when mental illness touches our families and communities, we often respond with silence, misunderstanding, or shame. Writing about a book that centres such an experience felt like a responsibility. I wanted to choose my words carefully.

Score, the second novel in Kennedy Ryan’s Hollywood series, follows Verity and Wright, better known as Monk. The two first meet at Finley College, where their connection is immediate. Both are artists at heart, Monk through music and Verity through writing, and they seem to recognise something in each other almost instantly. Before long, they fall in love.

For Monk, being with Verity means discovering an entirely new way of being loved. “How do I explain that it isn’t about how long we have known each other, but that with her I feel truly known?” he wonders.

There is something comforting about someone seeing all of you, not just the polished parts, and choosing to stay. Perhaps that is because love, more than anything else, is a choice we make every day.

Mental illness rarely cares how deeply two people love each other or how promising their future looks. Left untreated, it can change the course of a life. Verity begins behaving in ways that neither she nor those around her understand. Her relationship with Monk unravels, and she hurts the people she loves most, not because she stops loving them, but because something deeper is happening beneath the surface.

It is only after a frightening incident on campus, when a professor who has known Verity recognises that her behaviour is out of character, that she is taken to hospital and finally receives a diagnosis: bipolar disorder.

I realised how little I knew about bipolar disorder. More importantly, it made me wonder how someone like Verity would be treated where I come from. Would people recognise that she needed medical care, or would her behaviour be dismissed as rebellion, a spiritual attack, or simply “madness”? We rarely talk openly about mental illness, yet people living with it are part of our families, workplaces and communities. That is what made Score so difficult to write about.

But perhaps what moved me most was Ryan’s reminder that no one should have to navigate mental illness alone. Verity has people who learn how to love her through it. Friends. Aunties who have been there from the beginning. People who check on her, hold her accountable and catch her when she falls. Regardless of what we carry, we all need a community. Sisters. Friends. And sometimes, a partner who chooses to stay, even when staying is not easy.

Years later, Verity and Monk meet again on the set of Dessi Blue, a film produced by Monk’s friend, where they both have creative roles. It is immediately obvious that their feelings for each other have survived the years. But so has the hurt. Their reunion raises difficult questions about forgiveness, second chances and whether some broken relationships can ever truly be repaired.

Her disorder does not define Verity. She remains a writer, a daughter, a friend and a woman with dreams of her own. Bipolar disorder is not who she is. That distinction matters because it reminds us that a diagnosis is only one part of a person’s story.

Before reading Score, bipolar disorder was something I had heard about but never really understood. Ryan did not turn me into an expert, but she made me more curious, more compassionate and more aware of how quickly we judge behaviour we do not understand.

If I am being honest, Score is not my favourite Kennedy Ryan novel. I think it could have been shorter. Yet it is also the Kennedy Ryan book I have thought about the most since finishing it. If a novel can make us a little more compassionate towards people whose struggles we do not fully understand, I think it has done something worthwhile.

If the World Cup has taught me anything, it’s that some of us don’t need facts to predict disaster. A striker misses one penalty and suddenly your uncle in the family WhatsApp group is giving football breakdowns like he’s been coaching the national team since 1988. “Hekaheka nyingi! Sack the coach! Unaona hayo mambo?! We’re finished!’ And that’s exactly the energy people have about AI right now.

You can’t open LinkedIn without someone shouting, “AI is taking our jobs!” Proofreaders and copywriters? Carried off on a stretcher. Accountants? Dead and buried by half time. Marketers? Getting the manager sacked come Monday morning. Data entry clerks? Already on the team bus headed back to the airport.

At this point, AI has been hired, promoted, fast-tracked into management, made Employee of the Month, and somehow landed a corner office. No wonder everyone’s panicking.

Yet I wonder, is the conversation really about technology or identity? I’ve also asked myself – What exactly am I bringing to the table if a machine can do this in seconds?

For now, my theory is that perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about AI is that it’s coming for our jobs. In many cases, it’s coming for tasks, and that distinction forces us to reconsider our definition of value.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, technological change is expected to displace 92 million jobs globally by 2030 while creating 170 million new ones, resulting in a net gain of 78 million jobs. The same report estimates that nearly 40 percent of workers’ existing skills will need to evolve over the coming years.

So, the future is not running out of work. It’s simply running out of certain types of work.

Furthermore, according to workforce and automation studies, data entry clerks, medical transcriptionists, customer service representatives, bookkeepers, legal research assistants, stock illustrators, and many others are already seeing portions of their jobs automated. In customer service alone, some companies now resolve roughly 65 percent of routine first-level inquiries using AI systems without human intervention.

And with AI becoming more affordable every year, the question is not whether jobs will change. They absolutely will. The question is: What value can we create once the routine work is no longer ours to do?

When we look back at history, we see that Excel spreadsheets did not replace accountants. Google did not replace researchers. Calculators did not eliminate mathematics. What happened instead was that the nature of expertise evolved.

For the first time in history, an African solopreneur can perform work that once required a team of five. The implication is not that human talent can now be amplified in ways that were previously unavailable to most people.

The future may no longer belong to those who can process information the fastest. It belongs now, to the profesionals who can overcome the temptation to cling to an outdated version of themselves; those willing to evolve, rethink what they have to offer and redefine how they create value in our AI era.

Because value, like identity, is not a fixed thing.

It is a living story.

And every era asks us to rewrite it.

Tanzania’s plan to host a Canadian-backed plant that would convert natural gas into diesel and jet fuel is now waiting for assurance of gas supply before moving ahead to construction, after the investors completed some key stages.

Canadian company Rocky Mountain GTL, in collaboration with its African partner, Memnon Africa, and local associate, Rithi Tanzania Group Limited, completed a feasibility study with the Tanzanian government for constructing a gas-to-liquid (GTL) plant.

Tanzanian photographer Filbert Minja has won international recognition after receiving a prestigious award at the Earth Photo 2026 competition in London for a photo documentary on the country’s indigenous herbal medicine traditions.

Mr Minja won the David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award – Photography for his project, Roots of Healing, which documents the lives of traditional herbalists in the Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions and the knowledge they have passed down through generations.

Minerals worth Sh3.3 billion were seized while being smuggled in 55 incidents recorded in various parts of the country between July 2025 and March 2026, while minerals valued at Sh1.6 billion were confiscated in Kagera Region between June and July 2026.

The figures were revealed on Monday, July 13, 2026, by Deputy Minister for Minerals, Dr Steven Kiruswa, during his visit to Kagera Region to issue the government’s position on recent incidents involving the smuggling of gold and gemstones seized in the area.

Giving details on mineral smuggling cases, Dr Kiruswa said minerals worth Sh3.3 billion were intercepted during smuggling attempts in 55 incidents across the country between July 2025 and March 2026.

Speaking about minerals seized in Kagera, he said that on June 29, 2026, an operation was conducted in Benako, Ngara District, where police discovered and seized 20 sacks containing gemstones weighing 627.2 kilogrammes, valued at Sh10.9 million, with government taxes amounting to Sh1 million.

“There were four suspects. One of them, Petro Michael Kihiga, had a broker’s licence number DL0266LMD, which he obtained on May 25, 2026, in Lindi Region, and had been granted a permit to transport 273 grammes of minerals, while the actual weight seized was 627.2 kilogrammes. Under the Mining (Settlement of Offences) Regulations of 2022, the suspect admitted the offence and paid a fine,” said Dr Kiruswa.

He added that on July 1, 2026, officers arrested another suspect who was travelling in an international transit (IT) vehicle with gold weighing 4,434.66 grammes, valued at Sh1.3 billion, with government taxes amounting to Sh125.8 million, in Benako near the border crossing into Rwanda.

“At the same time, on July 4, 2026, an associate of a gold smuggling suspect was arrested with 453 grammes of gold valued at Sh144.2 million, with government taxes amounting to Sh12.6 million,” added Dr Kiruswa.

The gold smuggling suspects have been taken to court, and their case is at the mention stage.

Due to ongoing investigations, their names and the courts where they appeared have not been disclosed.

A resident, Mr Christofa Laurian, told The Citizen’s sister newspaper, Mwananchi, that the arrest of mineral smugglers was a positive step, showing that the government was serious about protecting the country’s resources.

Another resident, Ms Alisia Rwezaura, said mineral smuggling contributes to the loss of government revenue, and suspects should face strict legal action once evidence is established to serve as a deterrent to others.

Mixx has rewarded three more customers with Sh1 million each as part of its ongoing Mixx Super World Cup Campaign, reaffirming its commitment to rewarding loyal users while promoting digital financial services across the country.

The prizes were presented at the Yas pavilion during the 50th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF), popularly known as Sabasaba, currently underway at the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Grounds.

The three winners earned the cash prizes after using the Mixx Super app to pay for various financial and utility services, making them eligible for the nationwide promotion.

Speaking during the award presentation ceremony, Mixx Dar es Salaam Regional Business Manager, Estony Venant, said the campaign has continued to attract widespread public participation, with dozens of Tanzanians already benefiting since its launch.

According to Venant, a total of 48 winners have so far been rewarded through the campaign. He said more than 20 participants have won a variety of home appliances supplied by Mixx’s partner, Hisense, while more than 40 customers have each walked away with Sh1 million in cash prizes.

He noted that the campaign is still ongoing, giving more customers the opportunity to become winners by simply using the Mixx Super app for their daily financial transactions.

“The campaign has received a positive response from customers across the country. We encourage more Tanzanians to use the Mixx Super app whenever they make payments because every transaction increases their chances of winning exciting prizes,” said Venant.

He added that the biggest prize of the campaign, worth Sh50 million, is yet to be won, urging customers to continue using the platform regularly.

“Mixx Super is more than just a payment application. It is a comprehensive digital platform that makes financial transactions easier, faster and more convenient while rewarding users for choosing digital payments. We encourage the public to download the app and use it consistently,” he said.

The Mixx Super World Cup Campaign forms part of the company’s broader strategy to promote cashless transactions while rewarding customers for embracing digital financial solutions.

For much of the digital era, success in media was measured by one simple metric: clicks.

The more clicks a story generated, the more successful it was considered. Page views became the benchmark of performance, headlines became sharper, and breaking news became a race to capture attention before anyone else.

Newsrooms celebrated viral stories, advertisers chased traffic, and algorithms rewarded engagement above almost everything else.

For a time, it worked. But somewhere along the way, the pursuit of clicks began to overshadow the very purpose of journalism.

Today, the media industry finds itself at a turning point. Audiences are no longer suffering from a shortage of information; they are overwhelmed by it.

Every minute, thousands of articles, videos, podcasts, posts, and opinions compete for attention across digital platforms.

The internet has become an endless stream of content where truth, misinformation, entertainment, and advertising often appear side by side.

In this crowded environment, one question has become more important than ever: Who can we trust?

Trust has emerged as the defining competitive advantage for modern media organisations.

It is no longer enough to publish first or attract the highest number of clicks. Sustainable success belongs to the organisations that consistently earn credibility.

This is a significant shift. For years, digital platforms encouraged publishers to optimise for algorithms. Headlines were written to maximise curiosity.

Stories were designed to increase engagement. Success was often measured by traffic reports rather than public impact.

Yet audiences have become more discerning. Many readers have experienced the disappointment of clicking on a sensational headline only to discover that the story offered little substance.

Others have watched false information spread rapidly across social media before later being corrected-or not corrected at all.

These experiences come at a cost. Every misleading headline, every unverified claim, and every failure to correct an error weakens public confidence.

Rebuilding that confidence is far more difficult than gaining a single click.

This is why trust should no longer be viewed as merely an editorial principle.

It is a strategic business asset. Readers who trust a media brand are more likely to return regularly, subscribe to premium products, recommend content to others, and engage with multiple platforms.

Advertisers increasingly seek environments where their brands appear alongside credible journalism rather than questionable content.

Business partners are more willing to collaborate with organisations whose reputations reflect professionalism and integrity.

When information can be created instantly by machines, shared globally within seconds, and manipulated with remarkable sophistication, audiences need reliable institutions capable of separating fact from fiction.

The future belongs to organisations willing to prioritise credibility over convenience. This does not mean ignoring innovation or audience engagement.

On the contrary, modern journalism must embrace digital platforms, data analytics, multimedia storytelling, and emerging technologies. But these tools should strengthen journalism’s mission, not replace it.

For media organisations across Africa, the opportunity is especially significant.

As internet access expands and digital audiences grow, there is immense demand for journalism that reflects local realities, explains complex issues, and holds institutions accountable.

Readers are not simply looking for information they can find anywhere; they are looking for reliable voices they can depend on.

Media organisations that understand this will be better positioned to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. They will attract loyal audiences rather than fleeting visitors.

They will build communities rather than temporary traffic. They will become institutions that people rely on instead of platforms people merely browse.

In the end, journalism has never been about generating the highest number of clicks. Its purpose has always been to inform citizens, challenge power, foster informed debate, and strengthen society through credible information. Algorithms may reward engagement.

Technology may accelerate distribution. But none of these can substitute for trust.

Because in the digital age, audiences have more choices than ever before.

They can consume news from thousands of websites, millions of social media accounts, and an endless stream of digital creators.

Their greatest challenge is no longer finding information. It is knowing whom to believe.

And that is where professional journalism still holds its greatest advantage. In the digital age, audiences may click because they are curious, but they return because they trust you.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan insisted on Monday, July 13, 2026 that no one is above the law, saying respect for human rights must go hand in hand with accountability and adherence to the country’s laws.

Addressing the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Association of Government Solicitors and Legal Officers in Arusha, President Hassan defended Tanzania’s human rights record, dismissing international criticism as part of efforts to undermine developing countries.

“No one is above our laws. Anyone who breaks the law will be dealt with,” she said.

The President said Tanzania remained committed to regional and international human rights standards, noting that the Bill of Rights was incorporated into the Union Constitution in 1984 and has since been strengthened through various laws.

She said citizens whose rights have been violated have access to the courts to seek justice.

“We have provided an opportunity for citizens to demand and defend their rights through the judiciary,” she said.

President Hassan also cited Tanzania’s hosting of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha as evidence of the country’s long-standing commitment to promoting and protecting human rights.

She argued that some external actors were using negative narratives to weaken developing countries economically and politically.

Using a proverb, she said critics sought to “give a dog a bad name in order to kill it”, insisting Tanzania should not be judged on what she described as misleading narratives.

“Tanzania is doing well on human rights,” she said.

The President urged government lawyers to safeguard the country’s sovereignty by providing sound legal advice, preventing disputes and protecting Tanzania’s interests in international agreements.

“A government solicitor is not measured only by the cases won, but also by the disputes prevented, the public funds saved and the mistakes avoided before they cost the nation,” she said.