waltham
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 23, 2014
- 2,522
- 1,045
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2016
FLY ON THE WALL : This is no way to treat investors
Kasera Nick Oyoo is a research and communications consultant with Midas Touché East Africa
In Summary
In August, this year, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, made a high-profile visit to Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. In his entourage were about 40 businessmen and women looking for investment opportunities.
May I declare interest that away from my writing interests, I am the chief executive of Midas Touché East Africa, a company specialising in business consultancy, including research, telecommunications and media consulting. I was therefore in the local business delegation that met with their Indian counterparts.
As a consequence, Midas Touché East Africa entered into a bilateral agreement with Ms Dhanush Infotech of India, which also has offices in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
The idea was and still is that Dhanush Infotech brings the technology and Midas Touché enables the integration and implementation of the same in Tanzania. These technologies include extending health services to the underserved and micro insurance and smart transport, among others. This project would bring new technologies, create jobs and bring in tax revenue.
Or so I thought. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa delivered a passionate speech at the event, placing lots of emphasis on the need for investment by local and foreign investors. As a business consultancy, Midas Touche East Africa similarly had another idea, which needed policy guidance and direction from the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
To make things happen, we emailed the permanent secretary and BoT governor to seek their guidance on these issues. Then began six weeks during which phone calls were not picked up and emails were never acknowledged. No one – from reception attendants to the bosses – wanted to take up the responsibility of arranging for an appointment
At BoT we were herded from one directorate to another. We were tossed around until Treasury Permanent Secretary Servacius Likwelile was removed from office. Now we are on the cue to see whether the new boss, Mr Doto James, may consider holding a 20-minute meeting with us to explore this matter.
One BoT lawyer spent more time swivelling in his chair than listening to me. Another wondered where we got their phone numbers. I was told yet again that the responsible officer was on leave and the matter could not be handled in his absence.
Should we really be surprised when we see Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya all ahead of Tanzania in the Ease of Doing Business report? We shouldn’t, but apparently we should if a senior Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) official is to be believed. In a session during the [HASHTAG]#TanzaniaInvest2016[/HASHTAG], he questioned the methodology used in conducting these surveys and the intention behind them because, “unless they mean Kenya is ahead of us because they have a player in the English Premier League, but we have Samatta”.
As a researcher, I know that a research finding should be disputed by another. Of course, the TIC executive was joking, but being a top government official in charge of investment, he should know that the World Bank report is not about Tanzania or Kenya. Nor is it about sanitizing countries. It is a meticulously done global report dwelling on various key areas, including how long it takes to register a company and the time it takes to agree contracts and resolve commercial disputes. I have an email sent to TIC, which has yet to draw a response.
The meeting addressed by the TIC bigwig was also attended by energy investors Statoil and Pan African Energy, who expressed their concern about the inordinately long time it has taken to agree production sharing agreements or whether or not to allow the latter to sell LPG locally.
Which serious investor would want to spend three years waiting for the government to agree a clause after spending $3 billion prospecting for oil or four weeks seeking to see a bureaucrat paid by taxpayers, but who spends most of his time swivelling in his chair?
Sometimes you would think that receptionists knit because they have nothing better to do, but here is a senior BoT official busy doing nothing, and yet he thinks our business visit is not worthy of his time. It’s all in the attitude.
Hapo kwa red sikujua kumbe ligi trying to prove we are better than kenya sio kwa mtanzania wa kawaida kasumba ipo mpaka kwa maofisa wakuu serikalini tanzania!!!!
FLY ON THE WALL : This is no way to treat investors
Kasera Nick Oyoo is a research and communications consultant with Midas Touché East Africa
In Summary
- May I declare interest that away from my writing interests, I am the chief executive of Midas Touché East Africa, a company specialising in business consultancy, including research, telecommunications and media consulting. I was therefore in the local business delegation that met with their Indian counterparts.
In August, this year, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, made a high-profile visit to Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. In his entourage were about 40 businessmen and women looking for investment opportunities.
May I declare interest that away from my writing interests, I am the chief executive of Midas Touché East Africa, a company specialising in business consultancy, including research, telecommunications and media consulting. I was therefore in the local business delegation that met with their Indian counterparts.
As a consequence, Midas Touché East Africa entered into a bilateral agreement with Ms Dhanush Infotech of India, which also has offices in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
The idea was and still is that Dhanush Infotech brings the technology and Midas Touché enables the integration and implementation of the same in Tanzania. These technologies include extending health services to the underserved and micro insurance and smart transport, among others. This project would bring new technologies, create jobs and bring in tax revenue.
Or so I thought. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa delivered a passionate speech at the event, placing lots of emphasis on the need for investment by local and foreign investors. As a business consultancy, Midas Touche East Africa similarly had another idea, which needed policy guidance and direction from the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
To make things happen, we emailed the permanent secretary and BoT governor to seek their guidance on these issues. Then began six weeks during which phone calls were not picked up and emails were never acknowledged. No one – from reception attendants to the bosses – wanted to take up the responsibility of arranging for an appointment
At BoT we were herded from one directorate to another. We were tossed around until Treasury Permanent Secretary Servacius Likwelile was removed from office. Now we are on the cue to see whether the new boss, Mr Doto James, may consider holding a 20-minute meeting with us to explore this matter.
One BoT lawyer spent more time swivelling in his chair than listening to me. Another wondered where we got their phone numbers. I was told yet again that the responsible officer was on leave and the matter could not be handled in his absence.
Should we really be surprised when we see Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya all ahead of Tanzania in the Ease of Doing Business report? We shouldn’t, but apparently we should if a senior Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) official is to be believed. In a session during the [HASHTAG]#TanzaniaInvest2016[/HASHTAG], he questioned the methodology used in conducting these surveys and the intention behind them because, “unless they mean Kenya is ahead of us because they have a player in the English Premier League, but we have Samatta”.
As a researcher, I know that a research finding should be disputed by another. Of course, the TIC executive was joking, but being a top government official in charge of investment, he should know that the World Bank report is not about Tanzania or Kenya. Nor is it about sanitizing countries. It is a meticulously done global report dwelling on various key areas, including how long it takes to register a company and the time it takes to agree contracts and resolve commercial disputes. I have an email sent to TIC, which has yet to draw a response.
The meeting addressed by the TIC bigwig was also attended by energy investors Statoil and Pan African Energy, who expressed their concern about the inordinately long time it has taken to agree production sharing agreements or whether or not to allow the latter to sell LPG locally.
Which serious investor would want to spend three years waiting for the government to agree a clause after spending $3 billion prospecting for oil or four weeks seeking to see a bureaucrat paid by taxpayers, but who spends most of his time swivelling in his chair?
Sometimes you would think that receptionists knit because they have nothing better to do, but here is a senior BoT official busy doing nothing, and yet he thinks our business visit is not worthy of his time. It’s all in the attitude.
Hapo kwa red sikujua kumbe ligi trying to prove we are better than kenya sio kwa mtanzania wa kawaida kasumba ipo mpaka kwa maofisa wakuu serikalini tanzania!!!!
