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UTT orients livestock keepers on financial markets
2005-07-10 10:56:20
By Theo Mushi
In what may be described as a bold initiative the Unit Trust of Tanzania (UTT) has organized a visit to the city by livestock keepers to help them become conversant with financial and capital markets.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer yesterday, the acting Chief Executive officer of UTT, Gratian Kamugisha, said that the livestock keepers have been drawn from Manyara, Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza and Shinyanga regions.
He said they are not a homogeneous group, and represent different levels of education and exposures and some of them are well educated and some hold political posts like village and ward leaders.
He added that for some of them it is their first time to visit the city.
Mr. Kamugisha said that the objective of educating them about the operations of the financial sector is to make them choose investment opportunities like buying Umoja Unit Trust units or investing in shares of the companies listed in Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.
He believes that they may not make immediate investment decisions but may act as public opinion leaders to spread the message to other livestock keepers when they return to their regions. He said that a seminar has been organized to orient them on money and capital markets operations.
He said that so far 30 livestock keepers have visited the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), CRDB Bank Ltd, and Corporate Insurance Brokers Ltd. They expected to visit Bank of Tanzania, TIB and Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair at Mwalimu Nyerere grounds.
A workshop has been organized, and experts will teach livestock keepers about financial markets. According to Kamugisha , papers will be presented on the financial system in Tanzania , the Unit Trust of Tanzania, the Umoja Fund, the banking sector, the role of the central bank, and micro-finance operations. The other paper to be presented to livestock keepers is the relation between UTT and Livestock keepers.
Before launching Umoja Fund in May this year, UTT conducted countrywide public education on the role of the UTT and collective investment schemes.
This visit and seminar are therefore a follow up to sensitize livestock keepers to diversify by selling some of their cattle and investing in equities and units to avert financial loss if a large number of their cattle should die during drought.
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