Tanzanian President Joseph Magufuli has praised the Tanzania Zambia Mafuta (TAZAMA) pipelines for declaring dividends to the two governments.
President Magufuli is impressed that TAZAMA declared dividends at a time when jointly owned firms and many parastatal companies have failed to do so.
ZANIS reports that Zambia’s High Commissioner to Tanzania Benson Chali disclosed this when TAZAMA officials from Zambia paid a courtesy call on him at the Zambian Chancery.
Mr Chali said President Magufuli, who recently received the dividend at a state function, urged state firms including the Tanzania Zambia Railways (TAZARA) to emulate TAZAMA and step up their operations as they risk being probed and penalised by state authorities for failure to declare dividends.
Recently, TAZAMA declared dividends amounting to K9 million with Zambia that holds two thirds majority ownership raking in K6 million while Tanzania got K3 million.
And High Commissioner Chali has described TAZAMA as a great success story of the continued warm bilateral relations between Tanzania and Zambia that date back to over 50 years.
Mr Chali said TAZAMA has and continues to play a critical role in Zambia’s socio-economic development through the supply of petroleum products needed to drive the country’s economic sectors.
He said Zambians should be proud of TAZAMA as it is an important and integral part in the country’s economic transformation agenda.
Tanzania Zambia Mafuta (TAZAMA) pipelines Regional Manager for Tanzania Abraham Saunyama attributed the exceptional performance of TAZAMA to the continued good cooperation between Tanzania and Zambia and the spirit of hard work and unity among the employees.
TAZAMA Senior Public Relations Officer Kenneth Kalunga is leading a team from Ndola to Dar es Salaam inspecting the company’s infrastructure that comprises a 1, 710 km pipeline and seven pump stations that pump crude oil from Dar es Salaam to Ndola ahead of the company’s 50thanniversary this September.
TAZAMA pipeline was birthed in 1968 from the visionary efforts of founding Presidents of Tanzania and Zambia, Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda to supply petroleum products to Zambia following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 by Ian Smiths’s Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, which blocked the country’s import route of fuel from the south.