Land Bank moving at a snail’s pace

STAKEHOLDERS have called for the urgent sanction of the land bank in order to promote commercial farming.

The call for the establishment of land facility follows the snail’s pace observed in local and Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in agriculture.

“Land Bank is a critical impediment of both local and FDIs in large-scale farming,” said the Tanzania Investment Centre Executive Director, Mr Emanuel Ole Naiko, in an exclusive interview recently.

The TIC chief said the issue of land bank was first raised in 2002 during the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) meeting.

It was agreed during the national business congress that the bank be established and vested to the TIC. Subsequently, he said the task force was formed to conduct a countrywide survey on land in order to identify suitable land for investments.

The task force comprised members from TIC, government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

The team made the assessment on investment infrastructure, and land suitable for establishing public utilities such as electricity, roads and water.

“They came up with close to 2 million hectares of land throughout the country, by identifying the amount of land in each region,and the owners,” Mr Ole Naiko said.

The team also identified surveyed and unsurveyed land in each area. The experience drawn from previous investments in land showed that local communities and foreign investors in mining, agriculture and manufacturers entangle into land disputes due to lack of this facility.