On 16th June 2022, Tanzania’s Ministry of Finance and Planning signed a TZS 44.3 billion grant agreement issued by the Swedish Government for supporting poor households.
The grant amounting to Swedish Kronor (SEK) 196.3 million will finance the Productive Social Safety Net phase II (PSSN II), a World Bank project aimed at improving access to income-earning opportunities and socio-economic services for targeted poor households.
The funds are contributed by the European Union (EU) which is equivalent to EUR 18.7 million to be supervised by the Swedish Embassy.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Emmanuel Tutuba, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance explained that up to May 2022, a total of TZS 25.14 billion was already disbursed as wages to beneficiary households.
And 2,674 projects were developed and implemented to provide temporary employment to beneficiary households, providing 253,117 temporary employment.
The program has also contributed to the improvement of infrastructures: 550 infrastructure projects were prepared and implemented, 3 of them costing TZS 321.21 million are completed and others 547 costing TZS 16 billion are at different stages of implementation.
The infrastructure projects have also contributed to the availability of social services like education, health, water, environmental protection, rural road improvement, and others for the citizens who are living in rural areas.
