New Tanzania Investment Centre Plan to Improve Investment Process

The Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) has recently revealed a plan that will accelerate the current investment process in the country.

According to reports, the TIC will soon begin issuing a single license to investors following amendments that were recently adopted by the National Assembly on the Business License Act of 1972 and the Local Government Act of 1981.

Until recently, the amount of time that was required in order for investors to acquire the necessary operational licenses was higher in Tanzania than it was in the most of the other countries in the East African Community.

However, in an interview with The Guardian, Emmanuel Ole Naiko, the executive director of the TIC, said that he expected these recently adopted changes would help to speed up the investment process and would also reduce the amount of bureaucracy involved.

According to Mr. Ole Naiko, the final step of making the amended law fully operational was delayed because the Ministry for Industry, Trade and Marketing, along with the World Bank, had been preparing regulations to govern the updated process.

In order to find a reasonably convenient procedure that would be both effective and efficient and, at the same time, one that would not inconvenience the applicants, the TIC sought the assistance of the Land Department as well as the Tanzania Revenue Authority in drafting he procedure.

“This arrangement will reduce bureaucracy,” said Ole Naiko, “No one will be bribed because the path will not be long.”

Mr. Ole Naiko went on to say that according to the law, the process of issuing a TIC certificate should not take more than 14 days, however the TIC had been able to successfully reduce the process to seven days.

In addition, depending on the nature of the investment project, Mr. Ole Naiko also indicated that the amount of time that would be required in order to receive certification from the TIC could be as low as three days as soon as the new system was completely in place.

Under the current system, a new investor in the hotel industry would be responsible for acquiring more than ten licenses before they could begin operating their business.

Also included in these requirements was the stipulation that a new hotelier be required to obtain a separate license for every restaurant operating within the hotel.

In addition, according to Mr. Ole Naiko, breweries and super markets required at least 15 licenses.

According to Mr. Ole Naiko, The process to obtain these licenses was often very long and complicated and frustrated many new investors.

“Some potential investors shunned away after being told of the long procedures involved in putting up an investment in Tanzania,” he said to The Guardian.

Mr. Ole Naiko went on to say that he believed that the increased government efforts to improve the business environment within the country would help to attract and sustain more investors.