"Poverty still high in Tanzania!" - Finance Minister

By Our Correspondent, DODOMA Tanzania.

Early this year, Tanzania earned a new status as a middle income country if the latest classification of nations' economies by the World Bank is anything to go by but the status does not reflect the same in the rural areas according to the country’s Finance Minister.

According to the World Bank, the almost 60 million residents of this former British colony had a GNI per capita of $1,080 in 2019, going up from $1,020 in 2018.

The GNI is a reliable indicator to measure the social and economic wellbeing of the population. The Bank classed Middle Income Countries between a GNI of $1,026 and $12,475.  

Other middle-income countries in Africa according to the World Bank are Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Gabon Mauritius and Equatorial Guinea.

However, Tanzania’s rankings decrease from 166 in 2018 to 168 in 2019 out of 192 countries.

The Finance Minister, Dr. Phillip Mpango has become adamant that although the country has made giant strides in her economic growth but poverty is still an impeding factor.

 “Although we have succeeded in making Tanzania a middle-income country, the rate of poverty is still high; during the election campaigns we saw that our people still need to be uplifted. We still need to work hard to serve our people and change their status.” He said.

Finance Minister, Dr. Phillip
Mpango

Mpango said during the swearing in ceremony in Dodoma on Monday November 16 that more needs to be done to improve the livelihood of local Tanzanians.

The 2019 Tanzania Mainland Poverty Assessment notes that poverty decreased by eight percentage points in 10 years, down from 34.4% in 2007 to 26.4% in 2018. Country poverty assessments provide information on the causes and impact of poverty in a country, and examine how public policies, expenditures and institutions affect poor citizens.

During the assessment reporting, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Bella Bird, said that the sustained reduction in poverty is welcome news but it is important for Tanzania to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction as the number of poor people remains high.

“Continued government efforts to improve living conditions have resulted in a sustained increase in access to basic services and improvements in human capital outcomes, which in turn have helped to reduce poverty.” She said.

Today, Tanzania records 14 million poor people, up from 13 million in 2007.

Moreover, the report notes that a significant proportion of the population remains vulnerable to falling into poverty and about half of the population continues to live below the international poverty line of $1.90 per person per day (in 2011 purchasing power parity.)