BUSINESS NEWS

Exchange Rates (December 2, 1994):
US$1 = Shs 530 – 550
f Sterling 1 = Shs 835 – 890

BANK FLOATS SHARES. When the Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (CRDB) floated 250,000 shares President Mwinyi and his wife Sitti bought the first 20 worth TShs 200,000. The bank has restructured and reduced its staff from 1,600 to 1,000 and its directors from 27 to 12 – The East African.

SPEEDING RAIL TRAFFIC. The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has signed an agreement with the South African Railway Network to promote cooperation and allow for freight wagons to move freely throughout central and southern Africa.

REDEPLOYMENT OF RETRENCHED CIVIL SERVANTS. 117 Redeployment Councillors have been trained to help retrenchees to make rational choices about alternative income-earning activities.

IFAD LOAN. The International Fund for Agricultural Development has granted Tanzania a $18 million loan to help small-scale farmers in the Shinyanga, Dodoma, Tabora and Mwanza regions. The funds will be channelled through the Cooperative and Rural Development Bank at lower than commercial interest rates.

BRITISH AID. Tanzania has received a grant of £4.7 million for the rehabilitation of Tanga Port.

MASSIVE NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECT. Contracts were signed for this TShs 7,144 bn project on November 15th. Two firms will implement the project which will install 6,000 trunk and 24,416 exchange lines in Dar es Salaam – Mitsubishi of Japan and Segitel International of Canada – Daily News.

ROAD IMPROVEMENT TO CONTINUE. Ten international donors have agreed to go ahead with the second phase of the Integrated Roads Project (IRP). US$ 338 million has been pledged for 785 kilometres of new roads (mainly for the Dodoma-Mwanza section) and 885 kms of roads which will be rehabilitated. But, according to some sources, there will be delays in implementation because the Tanzanian Treasury cannot meet credit conditionalities – Express.

BANK OF TANZANIA (BoT). The IMF has recommended that the BoT should be transformed from an agency for execution of monetary policy into a viable and credible source of finance. The IMF report is based on the desire of the Tanzania and Zanzibar governments to retain one currency, monetary and bank supervisory authority. At present there is no bank-customer relationship between the Zanzibar Government and the BoT and foreign exchange reserves are not centralise at the BoT.

BANK PROFITS. The Meridien BIAO and the National Bank of Commerce have announced substantial profits for the year ending June 1994 – Business Times.

The CAPITAL MARKETS AUTHORITY commenced operations on October 1st. It will launch and supervise capital and securities markets comprising shares of private and parastatal companies.

INVESTMENT IN ZANZIBAR. 37 projects worth $89 million have been approved during the last four years by the Zanzibar Investment Centre. 33 of the projects were in tourism.

The BUREAU OF STATISTICS has changed the base year on which future price trends will be based from 1977 to 1992 – B. Times

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