Kuna Mhindi fulani wanamuabudu sana kisa anawawakilisha kwenye ubilionea ilhali wao maskini wa kutupwa, nakumbuka benki kuu ilionyesha 70% kati yao ni maskini balaa.
R u trying to say Rostam n Mengi r not worthing over a $1 bln?
Interview with Tanzanian media mogul Reginald Mengi
One of Tanzania’s richest businesspeople sees hope for end to graft
Reginald Mengi © Sam Vox
July 12, 2016 11:09 pm by
John Aglionby
The personal website of Reginald Mengi — the tycoon who, over 30 years, has accumulated interests in print and broadcast media, manufacturing, soft drinks, mining and technology — suggests
Tanzania is and always has been an open economy where it is easy to do business.
But two hours with the softly spoken businessman, who is one of the country’s richest people, reveals a very different picture. Despite Tanzania’s economy growing at more than 7 per cent a year, Mr Mengi says widespread graft has left it resembling a piece of fabric that is riddled by holes.
“You touch here there’s a hole, you touch here there’s a hole,” he says prodding the tablecloth over lunch in a Dar es Salaam hotel. “You touch this ministry there’s a hole, you touch this functionary . . . everywhere is full of holes.” Mr Mengi says he has lost out on at least two big deals due to corruption.
It is not just corruption that has hampered Tanzania’s economic growth; it was ruled for decades by socialists who regularly stifled entrepreneurialism, Mr Mengi says.
The businessman recounts how in the 1980s there were widespread shortages due to the government promoting policies that favoured domestic produce over imports. “People would queue for anything and things were very very tough,” he says.
It was this scarcity that prompted Mr Mengi — then working at UK accountancy Coopers & Lybrand, now PwC — to go into business in the 1980s, assembling ballpoint pens. “At that time it was very difficult to import ready-made goods. Fortunately the system allowed the importation of components or knocked-down goods that you could assemble locally.”
Mr Mengi eventually acquired the financing and the components and navigated the bureaucracy to launch his business. He describes how he made money by producing shoe polish out of charcoal during the shortages.
But he says that decades of socialism have had a significant impact on society. “People don’t see opportunities in things,” he says. “We have so much in Tanzania people need help to see the opportunities which are there.”
The economy did open up in the late 1990s under President Benjamin Mkapa. But Mr Mengi says the policies ushered in an era of crony capitalism.
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By last year the situation “had reached tipping point”, according to Mr Mengi, and he is relieved that the new president, John Magufuli, has prioritised fighting corruption.
Mr Mengi acknowledges the president has yet to articulate his economic vision, but he understands why this has taken time.
“If someone has a heart attack what do you do? Poop poop poop, you try and revive them. You don’t think, ‘Shall I give them a Panadol?’” he says while miming using a defibrillator. Despite painting a gloomy picture, Mr Mengi says businesspeople should not be too downcast about the current “bad times”.
“People with guts will make a lot of money in bad times, a lot of money,” he insists. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You can say this is good times or bad times depending on the beholder.”
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May 2, 2014,5:43 pm
Tanzania's Richest Man Concludes Sale Of Vodacom Stake
Mfonobong NseheContributor
Vodacom Group Ltd, the African subsidiary of British telecoms giant
Vodafoneannounced on Tuesday that it has finally concluded its acquisition of an additional indirect 17.2% interest in Vodacom Tanzania previously owned by Tanzania’s richest man,
Rostam Azizi.
In a
press release statement, the company said it had fulfilled all requirements as mandated by the Tanzanian regulatory authorities and that the transaction was now unconditional.
“As all the conditions precedent to the transaction have been fulfilled, the transaction is now unconditional and closing is expected to take place today, 29 April 2014,” the company said.
Rostam Aziz
Last November, Vodacom announced it would spend up to R2.5 billion ($240 million) to acquire a 17.2% stake in Vodacom Tanzania from Cavalry Holdings, a Jersey island-registered private investment company wholly controlled by
Rostam Azizi. Cavalry previously held a 35% in Vodacom Tanzania. With this acquisition, Cavalry’s holding the company is now reduced to 17.8%, while Vodacom Group, a Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed entity that previously owned a 65% stake in the company will now own 82.2%. Vodacom Tanzania, which has more than 10 million active subscribers, is the country’s largest mobile phone company, and Vodacom Group’s second most successful operation in Africa, after its South African unit that boasts more than 23 million subscribers.
Azizi, 49, is Tanzania’s first billionaire with a fortune estimated at $1 billion, derived from stakes in contract mining firm Caspian Mining, a Port in Dar es Salaam, extensive real estate in Tanzania and the Middle East and, of course, cash coming from the sale of his stake in Vodacom Tanzania,.
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