Magufuli holds talks with Mbeki, Norwegian minister

Dar es Salaam. President John Magufuli has Wednesday, November 28, met

and held talks with former South African President Thabo Mbeki at the

State House in Dar es Salaam.

Mr Mbeki is also the chairman of the African Union (AU) high level committee that

deals with money laundering, theft and illegal business in Africa.

In the meeting, Mr Mbeki said the discussions with President Magufuli

have enabled him to understand the efforts done by his government in

combating money laundering in various sectors including the minerals

sector, which is marred by corruption that affects most of the African

countries.

“It is clear that the efforts made by Tanzania are important and

should be emulated by other African countries because collectively

Africa can solve money laundering challenges facing the continent,”

said Mr Mbeki.

For his part, President Magufuli hailed Mr Mbeki for leading the committee

and promised that Tanzania was ready to collaborate with the team to ensure

that African resources were not smuggled out of Africa. The advised him

to have talks with experts involved in controlling money laundering to

get their experience on the matter.

The Global Financial Intergrity (GFI) of 2014 reveals that Africa

loses between $1.4 trillion and $2.5 trillion annually due to money

laundering. In total Africa has lost $95 trillion in 50 years, with

Tanzania being reported to have lost between $19

billion and $40 billion.

“We lose the money through theft as investors come into the country to invest

but report incurring losses and take our money out of Africa,” said

President Magufuli.

In another development, President Magufuli has met and held talks with

Norway International Development minister Nicolai Astrup, at the State

House where he thanked the scandinavian country’s contribution in helping Tanzania

in different sectors including education, agriculture, gas and

energy.

President Magufuli promised Mr Nicolai that his government will continue

to strengthen the relationship between the two countries including supporting the

Equinor Norway Company that is involved in the liquified natural gas

(LNG) project.

For his part, the Norwegian minister said that they have funded many projects

including Rural Electrification, strengthening Tanzania Revenue

Authority systems of revenue collection and promised that Norway will issue Sh127 billion for development projects.

The meeting was also attended by deputy minister for Foreign Affairs

and East African Cooperation, Dr Damas Ndumbaro, deputy minister for

Agriculture Omary Mgumba as well as Norway ambassador Lisabeth Jacobsen.