Tanzania Calls for African Development Focus from World Bank

Tanzania has advised the World Bank to consider the development priorities of African countries, including providing them with funding and expertise to implement various development projects.

The call was made by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Natu El-maamry Mwamba, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mwigulu Lameck Nchemba (MP), at the Meeting of Finance Ministers and Governors of the First Group of African Countries of the World Bank (WBG Africa Group 1 Constituency) held in Washington DC, USA.

She stated that the World Bank has greatly assisted African countries and now they should support more investment in development projects to accelerate economic growth.

“We urge the World Bank to prioritize Africa and individual countries in their expectations and provide additional financial resources,” said Dr. Mwamba.

Furthermore, Dr. Mwamba urged the World Bank to ensure that the additional funds provided through the new cycle of the IDA 21 Fund are disbursed directly to the beneficiaries to achieve positive results quickly.

She also called on International Financial Institutions to provide interest-free long-term loans to African countries to fully implement development projects.

“Short-term loans are detrimental to African countries, so we request loans to be long-term, ranging from 50 to 70 years and interest-free,” emphasized Dr. Mwamba.

Members of African nations seating on World Bank meetimg

Additionally, Dr. Mwamba used the opportunity to remind the participants of Tanzania’s request at the 26th Meeting of the First Group of African Countries held in Marrakech, Morocco last year, to include Swahili as one of the communication languages during its meetings due to its growth and use in many other regional and international meetings.

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“Swahili has become one of the languages used in meetings of the East African Community (EAC), SADC, AU, and is now being adopted for use in international meetings,” said Dr. Mwamba.

The meeting was attended by 22 member countries including Tanzania, Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

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