Tanga regional commissioner Chiku Gallawa

Tanga regional commissioner Chiku Gallawa has urged executives and legislators here to effectively address people's problems which delay or retard their development in an effort to reduce poverty.

She said most people in Tanga region continued to live in abject poverty despite numerous opportunities available, which however, she said they required effective leadership to tap and take advantage of.

The RC was addressing sisal stakeholders at a day-long meeting that discussed on the development of the crop as a potential to revamping the regional economy and relieve the people of Tanga of abject poverty.

Gallawa stated clearly that Tanga region and majority of its dwellers were under high pressure due to poverty, but yet most leaders were spending much time on trading blames instead of focusing on development issues.

She warned regional executives that her office would not entertain complaints and blames in the course of bringing the people development, appealing to law-makers to support initiatives geared to curb poverty.

The RC said, as a regional commissioner, she believed that sisal could help the region and its people a great deal in up lifting the economy through increased production and job creation.

Contributing to the discussion, Handeni MP Dr Abdallah Kigoda said that it would be just like a daydream on the matter of reviving the sisal cash crop if leaders didn’t ‘walk the talk’ on it.

He called on leaders at all levels to work with the people in planning and adopting strategies for bringing back to life the sisal industry, which once was key sector and driver of the economy in the region.

According to Dr Kigoda, one of the reasons that led to the decline of sisal sector was negligence on the part of the government in providing title deeds to small scale sisal growers, who needed them to secure loans.

"When we talk about reviving the sisal sector through small scale schemes, we forget that these farmers need loans in order to develop their farming schemes... the fact that the government is reluctant to give them title deeds, they are unable to access loans from financial institutions, how then can they manage to revive the crop?" he queried.

The meeting was attended by legislators, district commissioners, council leaders; and representatives from finance and land ministries.