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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. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |