Empowerment is the way out of urban poverty

Tanzania has been struggling with three cardinal enemies, namely ignorance, poverty and disease, since gaining independence 52 years ago, but they continue to maintain a stranglehold on the nation.

We have made remarkable progress in education and now boast about 20 universities against just two that we had up to the 1980s. However, little success has been attained in the fight against disease. Today, many of our people continue to die of preventable and curable diseases.

Much as people are more health conscious today, thanks to an increase in the educated population and public awareness, little can be said about material wellbeing.

And therein lies the main cause of our underdevelopment, which is poverty. Even though people are aware of what a good education is, and more are aware of disease prevention and the need for treatment, poverty fails them.

Although secondary school enrolment is most encouraging – 70 per cent of all Standard Seven candidates who pass the national examination get places in Form One, the quality of education they receive is generally poor.

Lack of teachers, learning and teachers’ material and facilities, make the attainment of quality education impossible, and poverty is to blame. The people have no choice but to step up the fight against poverty. Given that our county is increasingly getting urbanised, our people must be encouraged to engage in income generating activities.

Whenever we mention business, the issue of capital comes in. We could not agree more with calls for efforts to be made to increase investment in small businesses.

Ways must be found to provide, especially the youth of Tanzania, with market information and credit facilities, if we are to alleviate poverty and uplift our people’s quality of life.