The good oil. Kudra (L) and his brother, Said making palm oil in a traditional make shift crasher in Kigoma Region.
The National Development Corporation (NDC) is in the final process of establishing an integrated large scale commercial farm for palm oil mainly for production of edible oil and electricity in the Coast Region.
Currently, the NDC is waiting for the Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlement to legally hand over land permit in the selected areas in the region including Kisarawe and Kibaha ready for the project to commence.
Already 10,000 ha of land have been set aside by NDC whereby 4,000 ha are in Kimalamisale village in Kisarawe District where the project is expected to benefit the entire area and the neighbouring villages.
NDC head of agro-industries Francis Alfred told ‘The Guardian’ in an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam recently thatthe project will be implemented in partnership with a strategic investor.
According to him, so far the NDC has already acquired an investor from Singapore who will take the task of implementing the project.
He detailed that the investor known as Navabharat PTY Limited will invest a whopping USD111m to the project together with modern technology that would facilitate to ehnace production of the planned palm oil.
“We have already cleared with the investor with all essential terms needed before initiating the project,” he elaborated, adding that everything is in place and they are only waiting for a permit from the ministry.
“We will collaborate with the investor to ensure the effectiveness of the planned project for the betterment of our nation, the NDC will be responsible for the provision of facilitation support for acquiring he land,” explained Alfred.
The head notably said that, currently about 60 percent of oil which is consumed in Tanzania is imported and it costs a huge sum of money, hence the project shall help to save the budget, but also will help to obtain foreign exchange from the oil which will be exported.
“The project is expected to produce 7,250 litres per annum and will be able to accommodate the entire oil demand, such volume will help to substitute the imported oil for which feeds all population,” the official maintained.
Alfred explained that as part of corporate social responsibility, the project shall provide employment opportunities to not less than 4,000 villagers both direct and indirect jobs.
“The project will incorporate the surrounding farmers under contract farming system in order to empower them with entrepreneurship skills so they can produce much,” Alfred said.
“The farmers who will be involved in the activities will be assured of a ready market as they will sell their raw materials in the established processing industries,” the official detailed.
The project will contribute to the production of 10MW of electricity which will be produced from palm burgesses (remains) after industrial processes, he said.
Alfred said the electricity that would be produced from the project will be connected to the national grid to enhance the availability of electricity which is still the main challenge.
Both the surrounding villagers will benefit from the project as there will be improvement of social services like electricity, infrastructures, water schemes, schools, health centres and employment to earn income.
The National Development Corporation (NDC) is a leading industrial development and promotion organisation established in 1962 as Tanganyika Development Corporations (TDC) by an Act of Parliament to fill the gap of financing critical development projects and take over the colonial development corporation (CDC) formed in 1950.
In 1965, NDC was reestablished by the government to catalyse economic development in all sectors of the economy. After the Arusha Declaration, another role was added to NDC that of a holding corporation under the Public Corporation Act 1969 that came to an end in 1992 under the Public Corporation Act, 1992 as amended.