Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has instructed the newly sworn-in ministers to work hard to deliver the promises that the ruling party, CCM, made during the election campaigns.
Addressing 27 ministers and 29 deputy ministers after they took the oath of office in Dodoma on November 18 the President made it clear that her administration expects performance anchored in the ruling CCM party’s electoral manifesto.
Focus on diligence, not prestige
President Hassan cautioned the new appointees against viewing their roles as symbols of prestige. She stressed that these are positions of public trust requiring diligence, discipline, and visible impact.
“Those of you who now think that because you are a minister you have an opportunity to brag around—be careful. We are watching you. Tanzanians want to see results,” she stated, urging a renewed commitment to public service.
The President also held ministers accountable to the 100-day pledges made by the administration, which she highlighted will serve as a key benchmark for public assessment.
She insisted that execution must be rapid, visible, and demonstrable to citizens, not just documented in internal ministry reports.
Warning on tighter fiscal environment
President Hassan issued a significant warning regarding the financial outlook, preparing her Cabinet for a tighter fiscal environment.
She indicated that Tanzania should not anticipate the same level of external financing from development partners as it received during her first term.
Without offering explicit details, the President was firm that events of October 29 and their aftermath had adversely affected the nation’s standing with some international partners.
“In my first term we could secure financing from development partners because of our record. But now what happened in our country has tarnished our record, so we have the huge task of mobilising domestic resources ourselves,” she said.
Driving financial self-reliance
In response to the expected reduction in external support, President Hassan announced an accelerated shift towards financial self-reliance for national development.
She stressed that the government will intensify its long-held ambition to use internal funding as the foundation for flagship infrastructure projects, reducing over-reliance on foreign grants and loans.
“We will start implementing grand projects ourselves using domestic funds. We will not wait for development partners. Their funds will find us already ahead with the projects,” she asserted, signalling a major pivot in the country’s development financing strategy.
These remarks echo earlier commitments made during the opening of Parliament in Dodoma on November 14, where she unveiled strategies to bolster capital markets, stimulate local investment, and utilise natural resources such as minerals as collateral for investment loans, aiming to ease pressure on the national debt.
