Category: The Citizen

Defending champions Dar City face mounting pressure at the top of the Basketball Dar es Salaam League (BDL) as Stein Warriors and Pazi continue to close the gap in what is shaping up to be an exciting three-way title race.

Dar City lead the standings with 18 points from nine matches, while Stein Warriors and Pazi are tied on 17 points after playing the same number of games.

The defending champions have also dominated statistically, scoring 763 points while conceding only 412, giving them the league’s best offensive and defensive record. Stein Warriors have scored 693 points and conceded 445, while Pazi have registered 625 points and allowed 504.

The battle for top spot comes at a time when players have an added incentive to win following sports betting firm betPawa’s renewal of its sponsorship of the league through the popular Locker Room Bonus (LRB) program.

The renewed partnership will see basketball players competing in the 2026 BDL season share an estimated Sh588.9 million, with every victory bringing an instant financial reward.

Under the program, each player in a winning team receives Sh88,750, while members of the technical bench also earn bonuses after every league victory.

A total of 12 players and four technical officials, including two coaches, from every winning team qualify for the payments, making every match more rewarding and increasing the competition for league honours.

Speaking during the sponsorship signing ceremony in Dar es Salaam, betPawa Regional Manager for Southern and Eastern Africa, Bwalya Noah, said the company remains committed to investing directly in players.

‘At betPawa, we believe success on the court should create value for the people who make it happen.

That belief gave birth to the LRB. When a team wins, the players and technical staff who earned that victory should receive an immediate reward,’ she said.

Noah said the initiative recognises players’ efforts, rewards excellence and ensures outstanding performances translate into tangible financial benefits.

She added that the program has become one of Africa’s leading sports development initiatives, benefiting thousands of athletes in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria and Cameroon, while hundreds of Tanzanian basketball players have also earned bonuses.

Basketball Dar es Salaam League president Shendu Hamis welcomed the renewed sponsorship, saying it has significantly improved the league’s competitiveness.

‘This partnership continues to bring real value to our league. It motivates players to perform at their best because every victory now carries an immediate financial reward,’ said Hamis.

He noted that the Locker Room Bonus has changed the mindset of clubs and players, encouraging professionalism while raising the overall standard of competition.

Meanwhile, betPawa East Africa Marketing Coordinator Nassoro Mungaya said the company will continue working with the Basketball Dar es Salaam League and the Tanzania Basketball Federation (TBF) to strengthen the sport through better administration, player registration, match reporting and sustainable investment.

The long-held dreams of Songosongo island residents in Kilwa District, Lindi Region, to secure reliable transport will finally materialise following the commencement of a modern ferry construction project designed to provide safe travel and boost the local economy.

The Sh5.7 billion ferry, fully funded by the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, is being constructed by the contractor Qiro Group Ltd.

Speaking on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, during the project’s official launch at the Malindi port slipway in the Urban West Region of Unguja, Lindi Regional Commissioner Zainab Telack said the ferry would bring immense relief to the islanders who have long endured severe transport hurdles.

She noted that despite the island’s critical importance to the national economy, driven by its natural gas reserves and luxury tourist hotels, transportation has remained perilously unreliable, with residents sometimes getting lost at sea while using makeshift vessels.

“This island is vital to our economy; it produces substantial natural gas and serves as a premium tourism destination boasting large hotels. Until now, our tourists have strictly relied on air travel,” Ms Telack stated.

“We are now confident that this modern ferry will offer tourists an alternative, safe route to explore our country. Tourism drives our economy. Therefore, alongside providing safe transit for Songosongo residents, we are unlocking the doors to accessible tourism on these islands, which will ultimately boost the economy for both the citizens and the nation at large,” said the regional commissioner.

Songosongo Ward councillor Hassan Mbai said the island’s 5,600 residents feel as though they have been reborn, noting that since independence in 1961, they have relied on highly unreliable and dangerous maritime transport.

“To tell the truth, if we were not in paradise, then we must be near its gates. God has miraculously protected us all these years, even though our local ferries were incredibly unsafe,” Mr Mbai reflected.

He added that the dire transport situation forced government experts and institutional officials to execute local projects remotely via phone calls, as reaching the island was considered too hazardous.

“On behalf of the residents of Songosongo and Kilwa, we are overjoyed today. We firmly believe our travel safety will drastically improve once this modern vessel is completed,” he said.

For his part, acting TPDC executive director, Mr Francis Mwakapalila noted that the corporation deeply recognises the immense economic and strategic contributions of Songosongo island through its continuous natural gas production.

“Consequently, this investment forms a core part of our CSR strategy to uplift the welfare and living standards of the communities surrounding our project areas,” said Mr Mwakapalila.

He revealed that TPDC allocated Sh5.76 billion for the project, with 100 percent of the funding derived from the corporation’s effective internal revenue management, ensuring that national energy resources directly benefit the citizens.

Furthermore, the Director of Ferries at the Tanzania Electrical and Mechanical Services Agency (Temesa), Mr Lukombe King’ombe, noted that alongside the Songosongo project, the agency is managing the construction of six other similar vessels to serve various regions across Mainland Tanzania.

“We are currently constructing a new ferry for the Mafia-Nyamisati route, which will serve as the second operational vessel there. Additionally, we are building five other ferries designated to serve communities across Lake Victoria,” explained Mr King’ombe.

A consulting engineer from the Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI), Mr Lazaro Isaac, detailed that the new ferry will measure 28.8 metres in length and 8 metres in width.

It will boast the capacity to carry 54 seated passengers, two small vehicles, and an estimated 10 tonnes of general cargo.

He noted that the eight-month project commenced following an advance payment of Sh1.5 billion on June 16, 2024.

Execution has currently reached 31 percent, and the contractor is expected to complete the vessel by February 2027, as per the contract.

Wrapping up the launch, Qiro Group Ltd managing director, Mr Yang Hao, popularly known locally as ‘Makame Mchina’, assured stakeholders that his company is fully committed to delivering the ferry on schedule while strictly adhering to all stipulated quality and safety requirements.

Nigeria plans to take on a bigger role in coordinating humanitarian responses inside the country, as it shifts away from a system led largely by international donors and UN agencies, officials said on Tuesday.

The move was outlined at a joint transition workshop in the capital of Abuja, where the Nigerian government and the United Nations began talks on transferring greater responsibility for planning, coordination, and financing ?of operations to national institutions.

Nigeria’s humanitarian minister Bernard Doro said the move was not a withdrawal of international support but a transition to government-led coordination that would continue to receive technical backing from the UN and other partners.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mohamed Fall said the decision was not about reducing support, but to shift to a new model that takes advantage of more government and ?private-sector funding to drive humanitarian response.

Donor funding has been under growing pressure globally, while Nigeria wants to strengthen its ability to respond to conflict, displacement, food insecurity, flooding, climate shocks and public health emergencies.

The UN ?has said nearly 35 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger this year following the collapse of global aid budgets.

Doro said his ministry would work with ?federal and state authorities, aid agencies and affected communities to coordinate humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery efforts nationwide.

He said Nigeria aims ?to take the lead in developing its 2027 humanitarian plan, with technical support from OCHA and the wider UN system.

Whenever the price of coffee falls, farmers expect government to intervene. When fuel prices rise, motorists demand action. When bus fares increase, passengers look to regulators for protection.

More recently, butchers in Bukoba reportedly appealed to government to support higher meat prices after a local rancher began selling beef more cheaply than they were charging.

These examples have one thing in common. They all reflect a deeply rooted belief that government should determine prices whenever markets produce uncomfortable outcomes.

That expectation is understandable. It is a legacy of Tanzania’s economic history.

For nearly two decades after the Arusha Declaration of 1967, government occupied the commanding heights of the economy.

It owned major industries, controlled agricultural marketing, regulated trade and fixed many producer and consumer prices.

Citizens naturally came to view the state not merely as a regulator but as the principal economic actor responsible for determining what producers would receive and what consumers would pay.

The economic reforms introduced from the mid-1980s marked a fundamental turning point.

They followed a period of intense national debate over structural adjustment programmes promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was among their strongest critics, warning that externally-driven reforms could impose heavy social costs and reduce national policy autonomy.

Nevertheless, under the new administration, Tanzania gradually embraced market liberalisation, private enterprise and competition as the principal means of allocating resources.

The reforms changed not only economic policy but also the relationship between government and the market.

Yet, almost 40 years later, one important question remains unresolved: What exactly is the role of government in a liberalised economy?

Many of today’s policy debates suggest that while our institutions have changed, our expectations have not. Whenever producer prices fall, farmers ask government to raise them. Whenever consumer prices rise, the public expects government to reduce them.

Whenever competition creates winners and losers, businesses often seek official intervention to protect their commercial interests.

The greatest misunderstanding about liberalisation is that it reduced the role of government. It did not. It changed the role of government-from setting prices to ensuring that markets function fairly, competitively and in the public interest.

This distinction is important because a liberal economy does not mean an economy without government. Nor does it mean that markets should always be left entirely alone. Equally, it does not justify government fixing prices whenever markets become politically uncomfortable.

Before intervening in any market, policymakers should ask three simple questions.

First, is the market failing? Markets sometimes fail because of monopolies, cartels, collusion or inadequate competition. In such circumstances, government has a legitimate responsibility to act.

But not every price increase or decrease represents market failure. International commodity prices, weather conditions and changes in supply and demand also influence prices.

Second, who ultimately bears the cost? Government may announce higher producer prices or lower consumer prices, but if those prices do not reflect the true cost of production, someone must absorb the difference.

If transport fares are held below operating costs, services eventually deteriorate.

If producer prices are fixed above market realities, marketing institutions incur losses. Economic policy cannot eliminate costs; it merely determines who pays them.

Third, will intervention strengthen or weaken the market? Good policy encourages investment, productivity and competition. Poor policy often weakens incentives, discourages efficiency and reduces innovation.

The objective should not simply be to change prices but to improve the way markets function.

Governments possess many instruments besides fixing prices. They can invest in infrastructure, improve storage facilities, strengthen market information systems, reduce unnecessary taxes and levies, promote competition, enforce consumer protection laws and regulate monopolies. In many cases, these measures produce more sustainable results than administrative price controls.

It is also important to distinguish between price determination and price regulation. Competitive markets determine prices through transactions between buyers and sellers.

Regulators, on the other hand, oversee markets where competition is naturally limited or where consumers require protection. The two functions are complementary, not contradictory.

The remaining articles in this series will examine how these principles apply to Tanzania’s producer prices and consumer prices.

The next article asks whether, after four decades of liberalisation, agricultural marketing has fully embraced competition. We shall examine producer prices, AMCOS, the Warehouse Receipt System (Stakabadhi Ghalani), indicative prices and the continuing restrictions on farm-gate buying.

The discussion is not about returning to the past or abandoning liberalisation. It is about ensuring that government intervention strengthens markets rather than substitutes for them as we implement Vision 2050.

After four decades of experience, Tanzania’s challenge is no longer choosing between state control and free markets. It is defining the proper role of government in building competitive, efficient and fair markets that serve both producers and consumers.

Tanzania’s higher education sector is approaching a critical financing crossroads, The Citizen has learnt.

As universities expand, student enrolment continues to rise and the country’s ambitions under Vision 2050 increasingly depend on a highly skilled workforce, the pressure on public financing has become more visible than ever.

Kenya’s Parliament made a decision that should be studied across East Africa. By a vote of 122 to 40, the National Assembly rejected a proposal in the Finance Bill 2026 to introduce a 16 per cent VAT on peer-to-peer mobile money transfers, explicitly citing the risk to financial inclusion.

The bill, which would have subjected M-Pesa and Airtel Money fees to VAT for the first time, drew opposition from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), professional bodies like the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), and payment service providers including Safaricom, and Airtel Kenya, who warned it would drive users back to cash, what the KBA’s CEO called”mattress banking.” Kenya reviewed the evidence and chose not to run the experiment. Tanzania is still running it.

What is important here is not simply that Kenya protected a popular service from an unpopular tax. The lesson for Tanzania is that Kenya made a calculated economic judgement: that mobile money is more valuable to the government as infrastructure for formalisation and inclusion, than as a direct revenue line with diminishing fiscal returns.

That distinction is enormously significant for Tanzania, and with the Finance Bill 2026 being passed, the conversation turns to what reforms can be built into the 2027/28 budget cycle.

Kenya’s decision was grounded in two decades of evidence. Mobile money penetration has reached 157.7 per cent, with over 84.1 million active subscriptions. Formal financial access, which stood at just26.7 per cent of adults in 2006 before M-Pesa launched, now sits at84.8 per cent.

According to research from MIT and Georgetown University, M-Pesa alone lifted an estimated 194,000 Kenyan households out of extreme poverty. That trajectory was built on a tax framework that treated mobile money as infrastructure to be protected.

The Kenyan parliament reaffirmed that approach, and the expected outcome follows a pattern seen every time a comparable market has made the same choice.

One of the most documented of those is Ghana. In 2022, Ghana introduced a 1.5 per cent e-levy on electronic transactions. The results were immediate, as transaction values and revenues fell by up to 38 per cent year-on-year, whilst cash withdrawals surged by 61 per cent as users routed around the levy.

Ghana abolished it entirely in early 2025 and the response was equally as swift. In the first two months of 2025 alone, Ghana recorded GHC 649.2 billion in mobile money transactions; a64.68 per cent year-on-year increase, according to Bank of Ghana data.

By March 2026, GSMA named Ghana the highest-improving country in Africa on its Digital Africa Index, directly attributing the gains to the levy’s removal.

Tanzania has already run a version of this experiment, and the results were equally clear. When the government introduced a mobile money levy in July 2021, layered on top of an existing 18 per cent VAT and 10 per cent excise duty on mobile money transaction fees, peer-to-peer transactions fell 38 per cent within three months.

The levy was eventually abolished, but the underlying VAT and excise duty structure was never reformed. According to PwC Tanzania, the effective tax rate on telecom services, accounting for all levies, stands at 46.61 per cent per unit of consumer spend.

This is the central tension in Tanzania’s 2026/27 fiscal strategy. The Finance Minister’s June budget speech mandated digital payments across mass transport, retail, education fees, land transfers, and strategic crops, using Tanzania’s Instant Payment System, which processed 651 million transactions worth TZS 54.95 trillion in 2025, to pull the informal economy into the tax net. It is the right strategy.

Tanzania’s informal sector accounts for an estimated 44.9 per cent of GDP, and only 5 to 7 per cent of those transactions are currently captured in the tax system. The formalisation prize is enormous, but it can only be viable if participation in the digital economy is deemed affordable enough to be universal, which is precisely what Kenya has just chosen to protect.

The fiscal pressures driving Tanzania’s current approach indeed deserve acknowledgement. However, the evidence from every comparable market shows the same thing: the tax collected directly from introducing friction around mobile money is smaller than the tax forfeited when those transactions shift back to cash. Uganda learned this in July 2018, when the government introduced a 1 per cent tax on mobile money transaction values.

A UNCDF survey conducted just two weeks later found that 47 per cent of users had stopped using mobile money completely, whilst some merchant payment segments saw transaction volumes fall by up to 60 per cent.

The government was forced to reduce the tax to 0.5 per cent within months. A Tanzanian market trader paying through mobile money generates a VAT trail, income visibility, and a credit history. The same trader paying cash generates little to nothing.

What Kenya’s decision teaches Tanzania is this: protecting mobile money from punitive taxation is a revenue strategy, and should not be seen as a concession to the private sector. Three practical steps remain available before Tanzania’s Finance Bill is enacted. Removing VAT from mobile money transaction fees would align with Tanzania’s long-term digital economy ambitions.

A published, multi-year schedule for reducing excise duty would give operators the certainty needed to invest in rural network expansion. Finally, the budget introduces a new requirement that compels some operators in extractive and agricultural industries to maintain a formal financial account as a condition of doing business.

The problem is that the provision specifies only a bank account; it says nothing about mobile money. In rural Tanzania, where bank branch penetration remains low and mobile money is the primary financial tool for millions of smallholder farmers, livestock traders, and fishing communities, this is a significant barrier.

Kenya chose the longer revenue arc over the shorter one. With the Finance Bill 2026 about to become law, the 2027/28 budget cycle is Tanzania’s next opportunity to make a choice that supports it digital economy agenda.

The British Council is set to close its office in Tanzania as part of a major global restructuring driven by financial pressures, marking a significant reduction in the United Kingdom’s cultural and educational presence overseas.

Three African countries Botswana, Mozambique and Tanzania are among the seven nations confirmed to lose British Council offices.

Your manager asks you to pull together a report, sit in on a client call or cover something that technically falls outside your role. You agree. Maybe the team is short-staffed. Maybe it genuinely feels like a one-off. Maybe you simply want to be helpful.

Then it happens again.

A few months later, the extra task has quietly become part of your job. Then another responsibility is added. Then another. Your workload has grown, but your title and salary have stayed exactly where they were.

When we asked our community at what point ‘helping out’ becomes unpaid labour, the responses revealed just how complicated this conversation is. Because while it is easy to say employees should simply set boundaries, the reality of the workplace, especially in a difficult job market, makes that much harder.

Reading Between The Lines

One of the biggest frustrations raised in the comments was the infamous phrase found in so many employment contracts: ‘any other duties assigned by management.’

One reader wrote:

‘They keep adding responsibilities while your title and salary stay exactly the same. Then, when you finally speak up, they conveniently point to the ‘any other duties assigned by management’ clause. That clause has become a loophole to normalize unpaid labor.’

Most people understand that a job will occasionally require flexibility. There will be busy periods, unexpected problems and moments when everyone has to do a little more than usual.

The frustration begins when ‘occasionally’ becomes every day.

If responsibilities continue to increase without any conversation about your role, workload or compensation, employees naturally begin to question where flexibility ends and exploitation begins. A single line in a contract can become an easy answer to almost any concern about workload.

The Reality of a Difficult Job Market

Of course, setting boundaries at work is much easier to discuss than it is to actually do.

One commenter put it plainly:

‘When you are an employee you just have to say yes… Just work, earn your salary. Kuna wengi wako jobless [there are many who are jobless] that’ll do your job for less.’

That fear is real.

When jobs are difficult to find, saying no to your manager can feel like job suicide. You know there may be someone else willing to accept the same position, for less money. For interns and people at the beginning of their careers, the pressure can be even greater. Many already accept poorly paid or unpaid opportunities simply because they need experience.

So people keep saying yes.

They take on the extra assignment. They stay late. They cover work that belongs to another role. Sometimes this continues for months because having an unfair job still feels safer than having no job at all.

That is the part of the conversation that cannot be ignored. People do not always stay silent because they lack boundaries. Sometimes they are making decisions based on the reality of what they can afford to risk.

When Extra Work Can Work in Your Favour

Another perspective from the comments was more strategic.

One reader wrote:

‘If it benefits you in terms of adding new skills and challenges, exposes you for the better, take it and keep addressing it to your supervisor while you plan your next move with your value-added set of skills…’

And there’s some truth to this.

Not every responsibility outside your job description is automatically a bad thing. Sometimes an extra project gives you experience you would otherwise have had to wait years to get. It can expose you to new people, new skills and better opportunities.

The important question is whether the extra work is actually taking you somewhere.

If you are learning, gaining useful experience and building skills that can strengthen your next salary negotiation or your next job application, there may be value in taking it on for a period of time.

But if you have been doing the work of two positions for a year, your workload keeps increasing and every conversation about recognition is pushed aside, then you may need to ask who is really benefiting from your flexibility.

What Can You Actually Do?

If you are already dealing with responsibilities that have slowly expanded beyond your original role, you do not necessarily have to begin with a confrontation.

Keep track of what you are doing. Write down the responsibilities you have taken on, the projects you have contributed to and any results that came from that work. When the time comes to discuss your role or salary, you have something concrete to point to.

Ask about priorities. When another task is added to an already full workload, you can say: ‘I’m currently working on A and B. Which one would you like me to deprioritise so I can make room for this?’

It is a simple question, but it makes your workload visible. You are still being cooperative while making it clear that your time has limits.

Put a timeline on temporary responsibilities. If you are covering for someone or taking on additional work because the team is short-staffed, ask when the arrangement will be reviewed. A temporary responsibility can very easily become permanent when nobody returns to the conversation.

You could say: ‘I’m happy to cover this for now. Can we review the arrangement in two months and discuss what it means for my role if these responsibilities continue?’

That conversation may feel uncomfortable, but it gives both sides clarity.

The Bottom Line

Workplaces need flexibility. There will always be moments when people have to step outside the exact wording of their job description and help where they can.

The problem comes when your willingness to help becomes the reason you are continuously given more work without any recognition of how much your role has changed.

Extra responsibilities can help you grow. They can also become a very convenient way for an organisation to get more work without hiring another person or paying you more.

The difference often becomes clearer when you ask a simple question: Where is this extra work taking me?

If it is giving you useful skills, greater responsibility and a genuine path forward, it may be worth doing strategically. If the work keeps growing while every conversation about your own growth goes nowhere, that tells you something too.

At some point, ‘helping out’ stops being a favour and simply becomes part of your job.

And if it has become part of your job, it is reasonable to ask whether your title and salary should reflect that.

Disclaimer: This column is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute clinical advice. While exploring these psychological concepts can provide helpful insight, it is not a replacement for professional therapy.

If you are struggling with deep family conflict, burnout, or mental health challenges and want to dive deeper, please consider reaching out to a licensed therapist or mental health professional for personalized guidance.

Haika Gerson is a mental health advocate with a background in psychology and a focus on modern relational wellness.

CRDB Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to nurturing young talent, promoting innovation and empowering youth to seize entrepreneurial opportunities, recognising their vital contribution to Tanzania’s economic and social development.

Speaking during the grand finale of the 16th season of CRDB Bank Bongo Star Search held in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, the bank’s Director of Small and Medium Enterprise Banking, Bonaventura Paul, said the competition has become an important platform for identifying, empowering and developing young artistic talent to help them realise their dreams.

“Today is not only a victory for Praise Wisdom, but also a victory for all young people in Tanzania and East Africa. We have witnessed exceptional talent, discipline, creativity and determination that enabled the finalists to reach this important stage of the competition,” said Bonaventura, who officiated at the event.

The finale featured contestants from Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Bonaventura encouraged participants to remain innovative throughout their artistic careers by producing compelling creative works, improving their performance skills and using art as a tool to educate, entertain and inspire communities on various development issues.

He said CRDB Bank would continue supporting talented young people by providing youth friendly financial services, financial literacy programmes, entrepreneurship training and access to capital to help them transform their talents into sustainable economic opportunities.

“We invite all young people with innovative ideas, projects and businesses that require financial support to partner with CRDB Bank. We believe that when talent is given the right environment, it can become a major source of employment, income generation and national development,” he said.

This season marked the first partnership between CRDB Bank and Benchmark Productions, the organisers of Bongo Star Search. The competition awarded the winner a brand new car and Sh50 million in cash.

Bonaventura said Benchmark Productions’ long standing success in discovering and developing young talent, while providing aspiring artists with opportunities to learn, build confidence and join the creative industry at nationally and internationally recognised standards, attracted CRDB Bank to support the initiative.

He noted that the competition’s success over the past 16 years demonstrates the importance of continued investment in young people, particularly at a time when the global economy increasingly depends on innovation and the contribution of the younger generation to drive growth across various sectors.

Bonaventura also congratulated the organisers, judges, contestants and fans for making the 2026 season a success, while urging stakeholders to address existing challenges to ensure an even better competition in 2027.

Benchmark Productions Chief Executive Officer Rita Paulsen thanked the sponsors for their continued support, saying it had strengthened the organisers’ commitment to reaching and empowering more young people.

“We sincerely thank CRDB Bank for partnering with us. We are committed to continuously improving the competition so that it benefits even more young people. We are confident that the bank’s youth focused financial services will also create greater opportunities for our contestants through this partnership,” said Rita.

The belief that national budgets are gender-neutral came under scrutiny last week as experts warned that public spending continues to reinforce inequalities unless gender considerations are deliberately integrated into planning and implementation.

They said women, particularly those engaged in agriculture and other productive sectors, remain disadvantaged by budget priorities, funding delays, and unequal access to resources.

The concerns were raised during a high-level dialogue organised by Policy Forum in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Equanomics initiative, which seeks to promote gender-responsive fiscal policies across Africa.

Participants argued that the challenge is not only about budget allocations but also whether approved funds are released and used effectively to address citizens’ needs.

Presenting an analysis by the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (Ansaf), programme officer, Ms Werner Hillary, compared planned allocations with actual disbursements, saying the gap between the two determines the real impact of public spending.

She noted that although agriculture contributes 24.6 percent of Tanzania’s gross domestic product (GDP), the sector receives only three percent of the national budget, below the 10 percent target under the Malabo Declaration.

‘The consequences are real. In the 2024/25 financial year, the Ministry of Agriculture received only Sh500 billion out of the planned Sh1.19 trillion,’ she said.

Ms Hillary said delayed release of funds remains one of the sector’s biggest challenges, with money often reaching ministries towards the end of the financial year.

‘When funds are released in May or June, they often return to the Treasury unused,’ she said.

She linked the delays to poor agricultural performance, noting that Tanzania produced only 9,000 tonnes of seed in 2025 against a national target of 80,000 tonnes.

Beyond financing challenges, women involved in agricultural value addition continue to face regulatory obstacles that increase production costs.

Tanzania Milk Processors Association (Tampa) representative, Ms Rose Lyimo, said dairy processors must obtain 28 different permits from institutions, including the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (Osha), the National Environment Management Council (Nemc), and the Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (Tarura).

‘These regulatory hurdles make Tanzanian milk uncompetitive,’ she said, adding that imports from Kenya and South Africa often enter the market at lower prices due to more favourable tax arrangements.

She said processors pay Sh150,000 for permits to transport milk between districts, while supplies to Zanzibar attract an additional Sh50 per litre levy.

Ms Lyimo also highlighted gender disparities in livestock ownership, saying women own only 7.4 percent of ranches, leaving them vulnerable when male relatives decide to sell family livestock.

UNDP SDG Finance and Investment Specialist Mr Simon Moshy said the organisation is working with civil society organisations to strengthen public participation in gender-responsive budgeting.

He identified agriculture as a key area because women play a major role in food production, but continue to face limited access to land, finance, farm inputs, irrigation, and markets.

‘Civil society has an essential role in bringing the realities of women farmers into budget discussions and holding institutions accountable for whether public commitments translate into actual spending and measurable outcomes,’ he said.

A senior programme officer at the Kenya-based Budget Hub, Ms Faith Kinyanjui, said fiscal policy discussions should focus on three questions: who pays, who benefits, and who decides.

‘Budgets are never gender-neutral,’ she said.

While acknowledging that governments face limited fiscal space and rising debt, she said expenditure priorities, including agricultural subsidies, must be examined for hidden inequalities. She warned that allocating resources without addressing implementation challenges does little to improve the lives of intended beneficiaries.

The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) head of programme activism and movement building, Ms Florah Ndaba, said women make up about 71 percent of the agricultural workforce but receive only 11.6 percent of sector wages.

She said land insecurity remains a major barrier, noting that 82 percent of land acquired under the government’s Building a Better Tomorrow (BBT) project lacked title deeds, limiting women’s ability to use land as collateral.

Citing the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report, Ms Ndaba said only 282 of the 812 BBT participants in 2023 were young women, while the programme reached 514 youths against a target of 12,000.

She recalled how women in Kiluleni carried bottles of contaminated water to Parliament to protest poor services, an action that later prompted infrastructure improvements.

Policy analyst, Mr James Mlali, questioned the government’s practice of increasing budget projections despite repeated revenue shortfalls.

‘If we failed to reach last year’s target, why plan for an even larger one?’ he asked.

He called for more realistic budgeting to reduce corruption risks and urged greater representation of women in local decision-making bodies.

Farmer, Mr Fred George, suggested that Tanzania adopt Botswana’s approach of allowing women to access credit using national identity cards rather than land titles.

Concluding, Ms Kinyanjui cited a Kenyan example where a community rejected partial delivery of water tanks until all demands were met, saying collective action can strengthen accountability and ensure public resources respond to citizens’ priorities.