Improving Tanzania’s infrastructure and business climate: these are the African Development Bank’s priority intervention areas in its Country Strategy Paper 2021-2025 (CSP 2021-2025) published by the Bank on 8 November. Implementing this plan is expected to bolster the East African economy’s competitiveness and develop its human capital.
The Bank will support the development of high-quality multimodal transport infrastructure, including roads, waterways, railways and airports. It will also invest in improving networks for producing, transmitting, and distributing clean energy, and upgrading water and sanitation systems.
For transport, the focus will be on improving regional, interurban, urban and rural connectivity by road, air and sea to increase access to regional and global markets. In this way, the Bank will play a crucial role by boosting private-sector business activity through reduction in the cost of doing business, and strengthening long-term resilience through social and economic inclusion, particularly by reducing poverty and youth unemployment.
The plan aims to cut traveling time from 2-6 hours in 2020 to 1-3 hours in 2025 in the project areas following the completion of regional roads, interurban highways and railway lines. Improving the road infrastructure will also result in lower vehicle operating costs for the beneficiaries of the interventions; from $20 to $15 per kilometer a month, and an increase in income from trade due to increased cross-border trade and regional integration.
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In the energy sector, electricity transmission efficiency is set to improve by reducing technical losses from 5.5% to 4% by 2025, thanks to the overhaul of old transmission lines. In addition, the share of renewable energy in the national electricity mix is expected to improve from 2,615 gigawatt-hours in 2020 to 3,495 gigawatt-hours in 2025 as new renewable sources come on stream.
This is not all; implementation of the CSP will also lead to better access to drinking water and improved sanitation systems. Access to drinking water is set to expand from 60% to 75% of the population in the project areas by 2025, thanks to the construction of potable water supply systems. Basic sanitation is also expected to improve from 17% to 30% after the upgrading and construction of sanitation facilities.
The African Development Bank prioritizes human capital and skills development and seeks to work with the Tanzanian authorities and other development partners to increase skills and productivity, focusing on the youth. Under this plan, the youth will benefit from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to become entrepreneurs and thus develop businesses through self-employment.
The support to TVET will improve the match between the skills required by the private sector and the labor market and subsequently the number of salaried employees from 14.5% to 15.5% of the total workforce.
