By REUTERS

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President John Pombe Magufuli, Tanzania’s no-nonsense leader, has revealed that he has a monthly salary of Tsh9 million ($4,008).

This would work out at about a quarter of the amount his predecessor Jakaya Kikwete got, if figures collected by the Africa Review three years ago are correct.

President Magufuli made the revelation live on television on Tuesday morning in a speech to the Association of Local Authorities as he emphasised the importance of his anti-corruption drive.

"Some board members of public organisations used to travel all the way to Dubai to hold their meetings there just so that they could pay themselves a hefty amount of per diems. They certainly don't like what my government is doing now," he said.

Nicknamed "the bulldozer", Mr Magufuli, who took office in 2015, is known for making spot visits to state-run institutions in his efforts to root out absenteeism and corruption.

Last year, one opposition MP dared the president to declare his salary and argued the president should pay taxes.

Magufuli’s salary is a small fraction of that of other African leaders. He has no other publicly known sources of income and his government said last year it plans to submit a parliamentary bill that would prohibit public leaders from engaging in business to avoid conflicts of interest.

By contrast Kenya’s president earns a monthly salary of around $14,000. Jacob Zuma of South Africa is paid around $20,000 monthly, following a salary increase by parliament in 2015. Since 2009, Zuma has been embroiled in numerous scandals and allegations of abuse of office, including more than $500,000 of improper state spending on security at his private home.

Others with more modest pay include President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, who took a 50 percent pay cut when he took office in May 2015. The annual presidential salary was previously set at 14.1 million naira, which in mid-2015 was the equivalent of $70,000.