Minister Mavunde Cautions Mining Commission On New Vehicle Use -

By Senior Reporter VALENTINE OFORO

“The Regional Mining Officers (RMOs) must stand patriotically, and at a forefront to ensure these valuable vehicles are used to speed up service delivery at their respective areas of operations,” Mr Mavunde.

THE government has directed the Tanzania Mining Commission to make a gainful use of the facilities and other support that it continues to roll out in order to ensure the country’s mineral sector collects a total of 1trn/- as targeted in the current fiscal year.

The directives were issued this afternoon, (Mondays October 21, 2024) by the Minister of Minerals, Mr Anthony Mavunde when gracing a brief launching ceremony of at least 25 new vehicles of the state-owned commission, being part of the 89 vehicles planned to be procured in the current year.

“We must bear in mind that the government, through the ministry of finance has tasked our ministry to assure that we raise at least 1trn/- in the current fiscal year, thus these new vehicles must play a catalyst role to assist you elevating and fast-tracking our key service delivery,” Mr Mavunde said.

The minister insisted that President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan has worked to heighten the budget allocation towards the parent ministry to an impressive tune of at least 231bn/-, saying the satisfying budget should be used patriotically to fetch the intended outcomes.

He directed the Acting Executive Director of the Tanzania Mining Commission, Mr Ramadhani Lwamo to ensure the vehicles are installed with the global positioning system (GPS) devices in order to make sure the facilities are used for the intended purpose, and not otherwise.

“The Regional Mining Officers (RMOs) must stand patriotically, and at a forefront to ensure these valuable vehicles are used to speed up service delivery at their respective areas of operations,” he insisted.

Moreover, he detailed that the sector’s contributions towards the country’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) has continued growing annually, saying during 2017 the sector contributed 7.1 percent to the national GDP, but currently the sector is injecting at least 9.0 percent.

Speaking for his part, Acting Executive Director of the Tanzania Mining Commission, Mr Ramadhani Lwamo, hailed the government for injecting the commission with useful support, and assured that the vehicles will be handled properly.

“We’re so proud that the government in the current financial year has disbursed a total of 18bn/- to enable the commission to purchase a total of 89 new vehicles, as well as 140 motorbikes to help fast- tracking our service delivery,” he observed.

According to statistics at the ministry of mineral, during 2015/16, the mineral sector injected into the state cofer a total of 161bn/-as revenues collections, and in the financial year which ended in July, the sector managed to contribute to at least 753bn/-.