World Bank steps up investment for eight fast-growing cities in Tanzania

The bank said it has approved up to $130 million in additional financing for the Tanzania Strategic Cities Project (TSCP).

TSCP covers what the World Bank describes as "the eight strategically important cities of Tanga, Arusha, Mwanza, Kigoma, Dodoma, Illemela, Mbeya and Mtwara, to enable them to keep up with the pace of rapid urbanisation".

TSCP was initially financed by $175.5m, of which $163m was from the World Bank and $12.5m from Denmark. The project first received additional financing in 2014 amounting to $50m from the World Bank and $6n from the Danish International Development Agency.

The World Bank said: "With the scale up of operations under the new tranche of additional financing the project will promote better publicly-accessible roads, improved drainage, and more robust planning and financial management practices."

Navjeet Virk of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The support of the World Bank towards Tanzania's rapidly urbanising cities is a welcome step for Tanzania and its growing development needs."

Virk said: "Given that the initial round of funding allowed for the transformation of dirt roads to approximately 140 kilometres of urban transport networks and facilitated the management of water and waste collection; a further $130m will no doubt be a crucial investment in Tanzania's future. The additional funding will bring the country a step closer to its vision of becoming an industrially developed and well-connected modern country."

Bella Bird, World Bank country director for Tanzania, Malawi, Somalia and Burundi said: "Improving services in Tanzania's medium-sized cities is critical to support the government's industrialisation goals. These cities play a key role to strengthen broader regional development, to connect people with markets, and provide the foundation to promote the growth of industries across the country. We have seen significant gains in terms of connectivity, service provision, and institutional capacity for urban management as a result of earlier investment through TSCP."

In addition to physical infrastructure improvements, the World Bank said TSCP has also piloted "the innovative and successful geographical information system (GIS)-based Local Government Revenue Collection and Information System (LGRCIS)" – an "e-government" service that is said to have contributed an average of 30% growth in own source revenues for the cities in its first year of operation.

According to the World Bank, Tanzania's government is rolling out LGRCIS to all urban local government authorities because of its "demonstrable potential to reduce government's fiscal pressures and to encourage local governments to be less reliant on central transfers for service delivery".

"This e-government solution – moving from a paper-based to GIS system, and from a cash to cashless system – will be more convenient and efficient for citizens, and improve the performance and accountability at the local government authority level," the bank said.

Tanzania has been the focus of increased infrastructure investment in recent years. In 2015, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved two loans totaling $141.71m to finance the second phase of the Dar es Salaam Bus Rapid Transit System Project.

Towards the end of last year, the AfDB signed a $120m loan agreement to boost finance infrastructure and support small and medium enterprise (SME) projects in the country. The AfDB said the agreement with Tanzania's CRDB Bank would have a "particular" focus on developing infrastructure to enhance the country's power and transport sectors, which is currently "a major constraint for Tanzania's economic diversification and growth".