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Tanzania seeks $81m to conduct population census

Wednesday May 18 2022
Tanzania's Finance and Planning Minister Mwigulu Nchemba.

Tanzania's Finance and Planning Minister Mwigulu Nchemba. The government is seeking more than $81 million from donors to conduct a national population and housing census scheduled for August this year. PHOTO | FILE

By APOLINARI TAIRO

The Tanzania government is seeking more than $81 million from donors to conduct a national population and housing census scheduled for August this year. According to President Samia Suluhu, the census will involve all people living in Tanzania, travellers and guests in hotels.

“The government cannot plan then set its development without having the correct statistics of its people,” she said earlier when the project was launched last week.

The 2022 census will be the sixth since Tanzania gained its independence 60 years ago.

Minister for Finance and Planning Mwigulu Nchemba is seeking Tsh190 billion ($81.8 million) from international donors and aid agencies as part of Tsh627 billion ($272.7 million) needed to finance the entire process covering a five-year period up to 2026.

A statement from the Ministry of Finance and Planning on Monday said Nchemba had consulted representatives of development agencies over funding.

The statement said Tanzania government will foot the census budget by 70 percent with donors covering the 30 percent of the total funding.

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The World Bank has committed Tsh44.2 billion ($19 million) to the census while the UN Women pledged 200 laptops, the statement said.

The 2012 population census showed there were 43.6 million in the mainland Tanzania and 1.3 million in Zanzibar.

But the latest data compiled by the United Nations had estimated the current population to be almost 60 million people.

Director-general for the National Bureau of Statistics Albina Chuwa said they have already completed a pilot project study for identification of areas for obtaining population data ahead of the 2022 census.

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