Global Policy Forum

By Joseph Mwamunyange

Tanazania has invited African Americans to come invest in Tanzania in various economic ventures, especially retirement homes for their compatriots around Lake Victoria and along the country's 800-plus km Indian Ocean coast. The Director of Investment at the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Daniel Ole Naiko, told The EastAfrican that Tanzania was prepared to offer land to Americans willing to invest in the country, saying Tanzania had many untapped investment opportunities.

"We already have a variety of options for the African Americans once they come and decide to invest in our country," said Ole Naiko. He said local government authorities had earmarked over 370,000 hectares in various parts of the country for Tanzania's proposed "Land Bank," adding, "TIC will facilitate investment in these areas; I believe the African Americans who were here a couple of weeks ago were impressed with what they saw."

Mr Ole Naiko was responding to requests by a group of African Americans that had visited Tanzania a couple of weeks ago to make on-the-spot assessments of investment opportunities in East Africa. He said there several other opportunities in mining, agriculture, fishing, tourism, transportation, construction, IT technology, telecommunications and more.

The chairman of Africa United Against AIDS Globally (AUAAG), Tiahmo Rauf, who led the team, said, "Many African Americans would be interested in investing in Tanzania, but what is needed is for Tanzania and its people to fully advertise what is on offer-The investors I am talking about are not necessarily those who invest billions of dollars, but as individuals could invest from around $100,000 (Tsh100 million) upwards; this would be a good start."

He further said there were over 40 million African Americans with a total income of over $60 billion, and many of them would be happy to create a "Florida-style" retirement resort in East Africa and invest in economic ventures. Mr Ole Naiko responded by saying, "We are ready to negotiate with them to come up with tailor-made packages that suit them and are acceptable to us."

The AUAAG delegation included Steven Lattimore, who reports for American Urban/ Southern Radio; Aldoph Mongo - a freelance writer and media/political writer; and Monica Morgan - a photographer for Jet, Ebony and Essence magazines. The others were Reginald Smith and Jerod Smith representing American Urban TV and MBC, Tiabi Gill, international education director for AUAAG in the United States, and Dr Abdallah Mohamed, East Africa co-ordinator for AUAAG in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Ole Naiko told the delegation that TIC was in the process of readying local businesses to receive the potential investors. The delegation said their association was making arrangements to initiate a constant flow of African American visitors beginning June or July this year. Thereafter 35 tourists will visit East Africa every month, with the hope that their numbers will increase as time goes on.

The group of African-American journalists, who are also involved in the fight against AIDS, visited Kenya before moving on to Tanzania. In Kenya too, the African Americans were offered pieces of land along the Lake Victoria shore for building retirement homes for African Americans.

Mr Rauf asked the Tanzanian and Ugandan governments to consider doing the same. However, Mr Ole Naiko said Tanzania had more Lake shore land on offer around the other shared lakes of Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa. Mr Ole Naiko also assured Mr Rauf that DAR would open up its Stock exchange to foreigners the moment a draft Bill was passed by the National Assembly later this year. The American visitors said some members of their delegation had bought shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange while in Nairobi.

A member of the delegation, Ms Tiabi Gill, told The EastAfrican that African Americans in the age group from 25 to 35 were keen to know more about and travel to Africa. "They so much want to travel to Africa, but they are short of information on what they should expect when they come here," said Miss Tiabi

The AUAAG was instrumental in organising a musical tour to Kenya, "Celebrate Life," which included the renowned African American musical group Kool and the Gang. Their concert drew a crowd of over 500,000 people. The AUAAG tour of Kenya and Tanzania was intended, among other things, to enlighten the Americans on the many different tourist attractions and investment opportunities available in East Africa, and to encourage them to visit as a way of helping the region cope with the economic difficulties that hinder the fight against Aids.

The AUAAG delegation expects to educate and inform Americans about the "untold story" of the flora and fauna of Tanzanian and of East Africa in general. This was the first time that such a large number of American journalists had visited Tanzania with the aim of promoting business opportunities and highlighting the effects of the Aids pandemic on economies of Tanzania and Kenya. AUAAG is a US-based organisation dedicated to fighting the AIDS pandemic in Africa by sensitising American citizens, especially the African American community, to contribute towards the fight of the scourge.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.