- July 11, 2023
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Current News, macroeconomic management
MEFMI provided a technical assistance mission to the Bank of Tanzania, from 17 – 26 May 2023. The objective of the mission was to enhance the skills of the Zanzibar foreign private capital, (FPC) team on FPC compilation and reporting, as well as analysing and capturing data into the MEFMI Private Capital Monitoring System (PCMS) and dealing with any inconsistencies in output reports.
The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Zanzibar conducts FPC surveys annually, in collaboration with the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC). The Bank uses the PCMS for recording and processing the survey data. The PCMS is a web-based system that was developed by MEFMI to support its member countries in reporting foreign private investment statistics in accordance with international standards. The Bank’s FPC team recorded the survey data in the PCMS for processing in March 2023. However, the output revealed some inconsistencies which necessitated the authorities to request MEFMI’s technical support.
The support to the BOT follows increasing importance of foreign private capital (FPC) flows and the need to understand their impact highlight the compelling need for reliable, accurate and consistent FPC statistics in line with international standards. Specifically, for the Balance of Payments (BOP) and International Investment Position (IIP), information on FPC flows is an essential source of data for the primary income and financial accounts. For countries to effectively collect FPC data, it is recommended that they adopt survey-based collection systems as an alternative to obtaining the data through the International Transactions Reporting System (ITRS).
With the skills acquired from the technical assistance mission, the FPC team plans to conduct quarterly enterprise surveys through online survey reporting which is a more cost effective and sustainable alternative to the traditional face-to-face survey fieldwork.
There were four (4) officials from the BOT (Zanzibar) FPC team, two (2) officials from the BOT (Mainland), one (1) from the Office of the Chief Government Statistician and one (1) from the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA), working with the MEFMI team during the mission. The technical mission was facilitated by three (3) resource persons, Mr. Senei Molapo, a MEFMI Graduate Fellow and MEFMI Programme Manager, Mr. Dennis Mollel, a Systems Developer and Mr. Phillip Mboya, MEFMI Graduate Fellow on PCMS.