By Lake Zone Watch Writer
Musoma Rural Member of Parliament, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, has added his voice pleading to government to restore Mara region’s lost glory as a renowned industrial hub in Tanzania.
In the past, particularly during the regime of the late Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Mara region boasted of key industries in textile, fishing, dairy farming, cotton ginneries and oil processing.
Todate such industries are non-existent, leading to unemployment and decline of the region’s once thriving economy.
“We appeal to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to collaborate with other ministries to ensure that Mara region returns to its industrial status of having at least ten factories,” Prof Muhongo said in his contribution to the 2024/2025 budget estimates of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Dodoma recently.
“From the 1960s to the 1990s we had factories, but presently we don’t have even a single factory. So my number one request, as we’re in an era of industrial revolution, the suitable area to build industries is Mara region,” he added.
The Chama Cha Mapinduzi legislator said Mara region has ample investment opportunities in such sectors as agriculture, fisheries and livestock keeping requiring the construction of factories to stimulate people’s socio-economic development.
“Mara region residents are reputed good cotton farmers; we want our three dormant ginneries to start working; we want the new textile industries to start production. We’re renowned fishermen but now we don’t have a fisheries plant as the current one is operating below 15 percent of its capacity. At least, we want three fish-processing factories,” Prof Muhongo pleaded.
He continued: “We had two dairy plants; now they are not there. Mara region needs new dairies. In Tarime we’re growing coffee; we want the existing coffee factories to be expanded.”