Tanzania: Strides in Executing 2024/25 LGAS Budget

DODOMA — THE government has recorded major strides in implementing various development projects and initiating others in the 2024/25 financial year.

Minister of State in the President’s Office for Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), Mr Mohammed Mchengerwa told the National Assembly on Wednesday that a number of achievements have been recorded in implementing the 10.125tri/- budget that was endorsed under his docket for the 2024/25 FY.

Mr Mchengerwa was speaking during the tabling of 11.782tri/- budget estimates for his ministry’s 2025/26 fiscal year.

He said the government, through the PO-RALG, has recorded good performance in implementing various projects under the health, education, infrastructure sectors and others.

The minister said at least 158,916 teachers were promoted, which is equivalent to 214 per cent of those who were assigned and that 2,358 teachers had their structure changed after further development, out of the 5,027 teachers who applied.

Minister Mchengerwa said the government has successfully renovated and built new schools and classrooms.

He said classrooms have increased from 191,708 to 254,393, a 32.69 per cent increase, primary schools surged from 16,406 to 17,986, a 9.63 per cent increase and secondary schools increased from 3,863 to 4,894, a 26.68 per cent increase.

He added that toilet facilities have increased from 206,670 to 278,911 (primary schools) and from 92,724 to 120,970 for secondary schools.

Moreover, teacher housing units have increased from 58,637 to 60,429, libraries from 1,537 to 2,665, laboratories from 8,072 to 8,710, dormitories from 2,245 to 3,245 and dining halls from 871 to 1,004.

Mr Mchengerwa noted that 868 schools have been renovated, including 794 primary schools and 74 secondary schools. Also, a total of 45,804 teachers were employed.

On the free education programme for primary and secondary schools, the minister said the grant has increased from 249.66bn/- in 2020/21 to 484.27bn/- in 2024/25, which is an increase of 93.97 per cent.

However, the minister said that during the said period, 1,379 disciplinary allegations on teachers were received by the disciplinary authorities at the district level from employers. Out of these cases, 1,141 disciplinary cases were investigated, and 238 cases are at various stages of decision-making.

On loan provisions, the government through PORALG released a total of 82.84bn/- to 8,275 groups of women, youth and people with disabilities.

At least 40.71bn/- went to 4,557 women’s groups, 36.64bn/- were directed to 2,827 youth groups and 5.48bn/- were provided to 891 groups of people with disabilities.

The minister said by March this year, a total of 1.15bn/- were disbursed, equivalent to 66.47 per cent of the approved funds for communication allowances for Village and Street Chairpersons in 165 local government authorities, with annual revenues below 5bn/-, covering 12,263 villages and 2,161 streets.

On the health sector, the minister said the government has continued with the construction and strengthening of health service delivery facilities in the country.

Mr Mchengerwa said in 2024/25 the number of primary health service delivery facilities has increased from 6,081 to 7,713. Among these, 1,158 are dispensaries, 345 are health centres, and 129 are council hospitals.

He noted that a total of 129 new council hospitals have been constructed and 128 of them have been registered and are already providing essential services, including outpatient and maternal care.

The government also employed 34,720 health professionals including 1,851 medical doctors, 6,546 clinical officers, 10,213 nurses, 1,488 technologists (radiology, ophthalmology, laboratory, dental, and pharmaceutical), 993 pharmacists,328 nutrition officers, 224 social welfare officers, 239 biomedical technicians and 12,838 staff in other cadres.