Chairman of African Life Alliance Dr Ibrahim Kaduma (R) presents special award to Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) Communications and Information manager Edith Mushi in Dar es Salaam recently. The award was meant to recognise the firm as corporate member of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation. (Photo: Guardian Correspondent)

The private sector has been urged to adopt as one of its agenda, the war against corruption to save the country from poor economic development and the immense poverty of its citizens.

The call was made on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam by Ibrahim Kaduma when officiating at the 13th Annual General Meeting of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) which was attended by different personalities from all over the country including representatives from embassies of Rwanda, Kenya and Denmark.

Kaduma said that one of the biggest enemies facing the nation at the time being is corruption which has flourished in almost every spheres of life, making it harder for the citizens to access the basic services and even the opportunities which they could utilise to expand their daily undertakings to better their lives.

“We as domestic investors have the duty to build the economy of our country; we can take this nation to heaven or to hell if we want. We have the hitch of corruption which is eating every sector, but we being the stakeholders in economic development, we can take the leading role in eliminating this problem if we will decide firmly,” he said.

Kaduma said that corruption occurs when two parties are involved, the one which is giving and the other which is receiving and mostly being government employees. On that line, he said if the private sector will not be part of the problem, it is obvious that, the problem will be laid out once for all.
For his part, the TPSF Chairperson Esther Mkwizu said that foundation is taking a leading role to ensure that its members have strong voice in matters pertaining to the conduct of business in the country and that the government plays its role of creating the conducive environment to enable the business community smoothly carry its commercial activities.

“In adhering to public private partnership (PPP) we have signed an agreement with Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) to set up standards, where there will be a network among other things to ensure pre posting cooperation is available in the areas of documentations like issuing of various forms, registration and issues pertaining to licensing.