The World Bank has revealed that Tanzania's economic growth model is not inclusive enough as a result trapping many into the poverty cycle.

In its recently issued Country Economic Memorandum for Tanzania report titled Privatising Growth, World Bank also stated that many poor Tanzanians have come out of poverty in recent years, but many have fallen into it, too.

The bank said many Tanzanians are “clearly exposed to frequent income shocks; highly sensitive to such shocks, as they tend to own few assets; and they have limited access to social protection”.

“The prevalence of income shocks is clear: the median consumption per adult equivalent in 2021 was more than 10 percent lower than in 2014 due to overlapping shocks that occurred after 2019,” the report reads in part.

According to the lender between 2012 and 2018, poverty—measured against the national basic-needs poverty line—saw a relative reduction of only 6.4 percent. However, considering the country’s relatively high GDP growth rate over this period, the growth elasticity of poverty in Tanzania was close to zero—one of the lowest values in the world and below all major regional averages.

“As a result, the number of poor Tanzanians rose by 1.3 million over the same period, as the population continued to expand at a fast pace,” World Bank stated.

 Referencing the National Panel Survey (NPS) data, World Bank stated that 23 percent of households in the second wealth quintile and 18 percent of those in the third wealth quintile in 2021 were previously in the bottom quintile.

“Only 43 percent of those in the poorest quintile in 2021 were already there in 2014, which implies that more than half of those in the lowest quintile in 2021 had fallen down from a higher position on the wealth ranking,” the report read.

Tanzanians’ limited access to social protection is said to be evident also from the statistics.

“Per the latest available data, the total amount spent on social assistance in 2016 was equal to 0.45 percent of GDP, funded largely by development partners. This is a modest amount—by comparison, other African countries spend on average 1.6 percent of GDP—and clearly insufficient for the needs of the Tanzanian society,”

The bank stated even accounting for social insurance, Tanzania spends around 2 percent of GDP on social protection overall, less than countries with similar income levels. - THE CITIZEN

KIGALI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has secured 268 million U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to confront climate shocks, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.

The funding, approved on Thursday under the new Standby Credit Facility, will also be used to boost balance of payments, the ministry said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

A statement by the IMF said Rwanda's commitment to building a resilient and greener economy is commendable and required to be sustained.

"Enhancing social protection programs, improving human capital accumulation, and promoting private sector-led economic diversification will be critical to navigate challenging times and advance living standards," the statement said.

"Maintaining the momentum on Resilience and Sustainability Facility-supported climate-related reforms including green taxonomy will help close adaptation gaps and increase resilience to climate-induced shocks," it added.

The IMF noted that Rwanda demonstrated its ability to catalyze additional climate finance and promote collaborations between the public and private sectors during the recent 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

It said that despite the challenging environment, Rwanda's progress on the climate agenda "remains exceptionally strong. - Xinhua

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has hit the one trillion revenue collection mark. This is after the agency collected Sh 1.030 trillion as at December 8, 2023. 

In the month of November, KRA recorded a 15.8 per cent growth compared to the same period last year after collecting Sh 180.714 billion up from Sh 156.095 billion collected in November 2022.

"Revenue collection has progressively increased in the last 5 months (July –November 2023/24) after KRA collected Sh963.746 billion compared to Sh 856.646 billion collected in the same period last financial year, representing a growth of 12.5 per cent," said the agency in a statement on Monday, December 11.

Despite the improvement, however, KRA says there were some economic indicators that impacted the revenue performance, among them the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling against the US dollar by 22.0% in July – November 2023. 

"This, coupled with increasing prices of key products like oil has an effect of driving down import demand," said KRA.