PRIME MINISTER, Dr. Mwigulu Nchemba has asked businessmen in the country not to hurt Tanzanians by raising the prices of goods, especially this period leading up to the Holy Month of Ramadan and Lent, as the country currently has no shortage of food.
He said despite the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) in the country announcing the existence of a lack of rain in many areas in the country, but the country has food sufficiency, so there is no reason to raise food prices.
He made the statement on January 29, while answering a question from Nancy Nyalusi, Member of Parliament for Special Seats during the Live Questions session for the Prime Minister.
The Member of Parliament wanted to know how the Government has planned to ensure the country has food sufficiency and prevent inflation towards the period of the Holy Month of Ramadan and Lent.
“…At the moment we are eating enough, the country’s food reserve requirements are approximately 150,000 tons and now the country has more than 400,000 tons of food reserves, the opinion that I gave even when I met with the heads of the regions is to continue to encourage the people to consider the advice of the type of crops to plant”, he said
The Prime Minister has instructed the Heads of all the Regions in the country to educate the people to continue using the food they have properly due to the warning of lack of rain given by TMA.
“Citizens should take care of food and have only necessary consumption, in order to have savings”, he said
In another step, the Prime Minister has directed the Ministry of Health to consider the official levels of service costs and accelerate the plan to enact a law that will set similar levels throughout the country, in order to eliminate the situation of some areas having different levels.
He gave these instructions while answering the question of Ushetu Member of Parliament, Emmanuel Cherehani, who wanted to get the Government’s statement on the rates charged to citizens as the cost of seeing a doctor who is an employee and is paid a salary by the Government.
The Prime Minister has said that according to the National Health Insurance for All, citizens are encouraged to join the insurance systems to reduce the challenge of contributing to the cost when they need hospital services.
The Prime Minister has clarified that groups classified by law as children under five years, pregnant women, the elderly and those with epidemic diseases continue to receive exemption from contributing to these costs.
Regarding the challenge of systems in hospitals, the Prime Minister said the Government will monitor closely to eliminate negligence and excuses that delay patients while the relevant institutions are directed to correct systemic deficiencies because health services should not wait.
