Since donors slashed over $490 million US dollars in funding for the general operating budget, the country has been operating on a shoestring — but succeeding. Photo: Daniel Hayduk
It’s a good news, bad news story for Tanzania’s Finance Ministry.
Finance Minister Saada Mkuya has announced that since aid donors froze $493 million US dollars in the aftermath of the Escrow scandal, Tanzania has indeed been able to stand on it’s own but is in ‘serious trouble’ and many development programs have fallen by the wayside.
“In the past six months, the government has continued to work on the little it collects from its own sources. It is this small amount we have also struggled to disburse for development activities,” says Mkuya.
Use the problems as a teachable moment, says Mkuya: now is the time to do away with donor dependency.
“We are fighting, we are struggling, we send money where we can at that small rate of five per cent of development money but we have been operating on our own cash. In this last 6 months, the government has continued to depend on its own collections. ”
Mkuya says that the government has been able to rely primarily on Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) collections.