Dar es Salaam. The Tanzanian government must ensure that its citizens are fully involved in the gas and oil exploration, production and processing chain, to enable the country to reap maximum benefits from its huge fuel reserves.

That’s the advice that experts are floating, in the light of geological surveys and reports, which indicate that Tanzania is on the verge of discovering huge commercial gas reserves that would generate billions of dollars in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

According to the minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Mustafa Mkulo, the inflow of FDIs into the country would boost government revenue and constitute the largest part of exports.

This, he said, would convert Tanzania into a “gas economy.”   Strategies to prepare the economy to adapt to such huge investments have started, but experts stress that, local people should be duly tuned and given opportunities to participate fully in the preliminary phases of tapping the valuable resources for them to yield good returns.

They further advise that the gas sector should be linked appropriately to the rest of the economy; cautioning that, otherwise, its benefit to East Africa’s second largest economy would either be none or minimal. Readmore>>>