WEDNESDAY April 26, 2023
By Adam Ihucha
The Tranquility News Correspondent, Tanzania
The Tanzania President, Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, has appointed the Chairperson of the flamboyant Tanzania Private Sector Foundation, Ms Angelina Ngalula, key member of the newly established Tanzania End Malaria Council (TEMC).
Health Minister, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, announced in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday when Tanzania joined the international community in marking the World Malaria Day, that Dr Samia had nominated Ms Ngalula, a high-profile businesswoman, to form a 19-member newly established council.
The mandate of TEMC shall include mobilising resources to intensify the fight against the disease in a bid to attain zero malaria by 2030.
“Her excellency President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan has nominated our dearest sister, Angelina Ngalula, the incumbent Chairperson of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), member of the Tanzania End Malaria Council,” Ms Mwalimu declared, amid applause from the audience, at the climax of the World Malaria Day.
Ms Mwalimu hinted that the Tanzania End Malaria Council would provide a platform for advocating for more funding to protect and sustain progress so far made by the government, and to put the country on a pathway to ending malaria for good.
“I’m extremely humbled to be appointed by the Head of State to become the member of the national council to end malaria. This nomination signals the trust the President, Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, has not only in me, but in the entire private sector. I will work diligently with my colleagues to deliver beyond the President’s expectations,” the TPSF Chairperson commented.
Ms Ngalula, the Managing Director of Bravo Group of Companies and Agricom Africa, owns over 100-fleet of trucks as well as three Internal Container Depots (ICD) servicing highly valuable minerals from neighbouring countries destined for export markets.
She has also contracted a Tea Auction facility, a first of its kind in Tanzania, to see Tanzanian tea traded locally, ending the previous arrangement whereby the crop was auctioned in a neighbouring country.
Her Agricom’s Africa currently controls the largest market share in agri-equipment business in Tanzania, a clear testimony that women can be a game changer in doing big businesses in Tanzania and across the region.
Besides chairing the TPSF, which represents about four million businesses, Ms Ngalula also presides over the giant East African Business Council (EABC), overseeing seven member states.
Inaugurating the TEMC, the Prime Minster, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, tasked members of the council to ensure they mobilise sufficient resources to complement government’s efforts in eradicating the malaria disease.
Mr Majaliwa said the country though had recorded a decline in confirmed malaria cases by 55 per cent, additional efforts were still required if the malady is to become history in the country come 2030.
The Premier directed the Ministry of Health to conduct, in collaboration with TEMC, a comprehensive campaign especially in rural areas in a bid to raise awareness on the disease.
They should use various means to deliver the message, including drama and politicians, for making the malaria fight awareness as part of agenda in political rallies.
“Go to regions with malaria prevalence rate of less than 1 per cent to ensure it reaches 0 per cent by 2030,” Mr Majaliwa stressed.
Transmission though varies significantly among and within regions in the country, official statistics from the Health Ministry shows 94 per cent of the entire population is considered at risk of malaria infections.
Malaria confirmed cases declined from 7.7 million in 2015 to 3.5 million in 2022, with the ailment incidence per 1,000 population reduced by almost 64 per cent from 162 in 2015 to 58 in 2022.
Data indicates five regions with the highest prevalence rate as Tabora (23.4 per cent), Mtwara (20 per cent), Kagera (18 per cent), Shinyanga (16 per cent) and Mara (15 per cent).
The lowest prevalence regions are Manyara, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Dodoma, Songwe, Mwanza and Dar es SalaamΩ
