By ADAM
IHUCHA -- Seemingly, Tanzanians working abroad are not contributing
significantly to the economy back home in comparison to their African’s peers.
Foreign
Affairs Minister Bernard Membe quoted by The
Guardian as saying that Tanzania Diasporas contribute less than $100,000
per annum, testing their commitment in their country’s development.
According to
Mr Membe, Ghana diasporas contribute $2.1 billion annually, Nigerian $3.1
billion, and Kenya $1.6 billion.
“We have nearly 2 million Tanzanian diasporas,
but their contribution is less than $100,000” he said during the launch of a new
outreach project for Tanzania Diasporas prepared by the Tanzanian Diaspora
Department and International Organization for Migration (IOM).
However, in
2012 records show that Tanzania Diasporas remitted $250 million back home.
Again, the World
Bank report on development indicators shows that Tanzanians abroad sent home
$18million in 2008, represented a paltry 0.09 percent of East Africa’s third
biggest GDP by then.
Apparently, Ugandans working abroad are not only
flying the country’s flag high, but they also contributed significantly to the
economy back home.
In 2008, for instance, Ugandans in the diaspora
remitted about $723m back home, this represents about 5 percent of Uganda’s
GDP, which is a measure of the total value of goods and services produced in
the country in a given year.
This figure is equivalent to 35 percent of the deposit
base of all Ugandan banks as of March 2008 figures computed from budget speech
of 2008/2009.
When compared to Uganda’s budget for the fiscal year
2008/2009, this figure is equivalent to about 23 percent of the budget.
Or put another way, it is bigger than the largest
allocation to any one sector in the country.
How does Uganda compare to her East African peers?
WB says Uganda’s $723million remittances come second
to Kenya, which bagged about $1.6b in 2008 from Kenyans in the diaspora,
representing about 5.6 percent of its GDP.
On the other hand, Rwandans working outside their
country, which is slated to grow by 6 percent this year, sent home nearly three
times what Tanzanians did, at $67million.
This accounted for 1.5 percent of their GDP.
The Burundians abroad sent home the smallest amount at
$3.6million, which was 0.31 percent of their GDP.
The larger number of Ugandans living and working
abroad could be an explaining factor behind Uganda’s large remittances,
relative to Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, who migrated as refugees during the
turbulent 70s and 80s and perhaps, more recently, as guards in Iraq, Somalia
and Afghanistan.
Why Tanzania Diaspora
It is
arguably that many wealthy and well educated Tanzanians living abroad fail to
contribute to national development because they are denied the right to dual
citizenship.
Dual citizenship is a status in which a person is
concurrently regarded as a citizen under the laws of two states.The Tanzanian
citizenship is governed by the Citizenship Act of 1995.
Somehow, Mr Membe agree with the argument saying it is high
time now for Tanzania to allow dual citizenships so as to enable the Diasporas
contribute to the country’s development in terms of income and expertise.
He dismissed claims that dual citizenship will affect national security, saying it is a wrong assumption because the national security can be tempered by people living in the country and not the Diaspora as they don’t know much about what is happening back home.
“A regular citizen living abroad cannot be a traitor, except leaders and people living here who know many issues concerning the country’s security,” he said.
According to
Membe, many Tanzanian experts living abroad have the desire to support
development initiatives but fail due to the fact that the country doesn’t allow
dual citizenship.
He said countries allowing dual citizenship have managed to get a lot of money from them because they are able to return what they earn abroad.
He said countries allowing dual citizenship have managed to get a lot of money from them because they are able to return what they earn abroad.
However, the
second Draft Constitution has fallen short in accommodating dual citizenship as
the right-thinking members of the society anticipated it.
Article 59 of
the blueprint reads that without jeopardizing the conditions provided in this
section, anybody a native Tanzania who ceased to be a Tanzanian citizen by attaining
other country’s citizenship when he or she come back will be recognized as it
could be stipulated by the constitution of the constituent member countries.
0 comments:
Post a Comment