Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) presidential candidate, Anna Mghwira
Alliance
for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) presidential candidate Anna
Mghwira yesterday said, if elected to the country’s top job, she will
engage the youths in production sectors such as agriculture and
encourage them to join social security schemes in order to guarantee
themselves decent savings.
She said agriculture was the backbone of Tanzania’s economy in
terms of production and employment and her government would strive to
pay serious attention to the sector by providing subsidy and loans to
the youths.
Mghwira made remarks to that effect at her party’s election
campaign rally at Kasurumimba ward grounds in Kigoma as the party kicked
off its presidential campaigns in the region.
She said despite the swelling number of motorbike taxi (bodaboda) riders, the business is still only remotely profitable.
She said it was hard for bodaboda business to add value to the
lives of youths in the country, adding: “Although it is a booming
business, it is not a sustainable form of employment for the youths or
entrepreneurial in nature. Therefore, it shouldn’t substitute youth’s
involvement in agriculture.”
Mghwira argued that bodaboda business was not pro-poor for the
youths and no one should advocate it, noting: “I do not think it is
among the best ways of addressing unemployment among our country’s
youths.”
She added that, as part of her party’s focus areas, she was
encouraging youths from all walks of life to join social security
schemes to guarantee themselves decent savings.
“However, my government will reduce the number of social security
schemes in place in the country to three, namely, national social
security fund, national health insurance fund and public servants
pension fund,” she said.
Commenting on ways to improve the welfare of the people in Kigoma
Region, the candidate said her party would if elected into power
implement the long-mooted move to shift the government offices to
Dodoma.
She said once government offices are located in the designated
national capital, her party and government would be better placed to
support and serve the citizenry much better than now obtains.
ACT-Wazalendo, which took longer than expected to embark on the
countrywide campaigns, launched the process on August 30, campaigned at
Kasurumimba, Mahenge and Kigoma Urban.
The party’s leader, Zitto Zuberi Kabwe, launched his campaign as a
parliamentary candidate running for Kigoma Urban constituency.
Kabwe promised to ensure that youths involved in bodaboda business
were registered with the national social security fund “so that they
eventually have enough savings to run and own them instead of working
for the good of other businesspeople”.
He said that, in order to help the youths in Kigoma access loans
easily, he would work with his fellow Kigoma MPs to establish a bank for
Kigoma Region if he wins the parliamentary race.
EmoticonEmoticon