Tanzanian government and European Union sign €179.35 million grant agreement to support policy changes, industry growth, and infrastructure development.
Grant funds are to be utilized for promoting green energy, smart cities, gender equity, and renovation of rural roads in the southern highlands region.
EU grant aligns with Tanzania’s strategic development plans and contributes to accelerating economic recovery and climate change adaptation in the East African Community.
Three financial grant agreements totaling 179.35 million euros (approximately Sh455.09 billion) have been signed between the Tanzanian government and the European Union to assist budget operations.
The president of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan was present yesterday in the city to witness the grant signing. The President claims that this donation would greatly aid and hasten the nation’s development programs’ execution.
“The money will be used to promote policy changes and industry growth in the blue economy, finance for growth, gender equity, green energy, and smart cities, as well as the renovation of rural roads in the southern highlands region,” she said.
According to a report by The Citizen, a Tanzanian news publication, President Hassan said that this payment was made in part as a result of her travel to Brussels, Belgium, in February 2022, when she met and spoke with Mr. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
“The disbursement made as a grant to the government coffers is fully aligned with the strategic Tanzania development plans particularly the five-year development plan III, the Tanzania development vision 2025, and the Zanzibar development vision 2050.” ‘
Read more: US prisons an arena for more Human right abuse
“The programs will also complement the theme of the 2023/2024 fiscal year as adopted by the East African Community (EAC), which says ‘accelerating economic recovery, climate change adaptation, and mitigation in enhancing productive sectors for improved livelihood’,” the President said.
The payout is a component of the various EU grant budget assistance activities that the EU is putting together with the government of Tanzania from 2021 to 2027, which have a total budget of Sh637 billion, according to the head of the EU mission to Tanzania, Mr. Manfredo Fanti.
“There are different ways to contribute to the sustainable development of Tanzania; some of them are very visible, but today we are here with different modalities we have agreed with the government of Tanzania, and as you said, it is a preferred modality by contributing to the national budget,” he said.
“We believe in this approach because of the ownership it creates in the partners’ country, however, it also has the downside that we lose the external visibility of our funding because we cannot show something that you can completely touch,” he added.
He said that the funds will also be used to support the Global Gateway initiative, a new European strategy to advance clean, safe, and reliable connections in the energy, transportation, and digital industries as well as to improve global health, education, and research systems.
The grant deal, according to Financing and Planning Minister Dr. Mwigulu Nchemba, is classified under three programs: the blue economy, financing for growth, and cooperation facility.
“This is going to support the budget together with the private sector reforms in gender, digitalization, green and smart cities, the blue economy, finance, and the improvement of rural roads,” he said.
