Tanzania: Varsity Students Seek Solutions to Unemployment

Tanga — UNIVERSITY students met in Tanga city over the week under the sponsorship of Voice of America (VOA), discussing the problem of unemployment for graduates in the country.

The discussion was also aimed at finding permanent solution to the problem and enabling all graduates get employment whether in Government or private sectors.

When addressing the meeting the Tanga Regional Commissioner, Ms Chiku Gallawa, told the students that the best way of getting employment was for them to change their mindsets, in the sense that instead of depending on employment from government, they should create jobs for themselves.


She said Tanzania has many job creation opportunities which are not yet tapped; foreigners see those opportunities and that is why many of them scramble to invest here. She said it was astonishing to see graduates complaining that there were no jobs, while when foreigners come within short time they see the opportunities and utilize them by establishing big projects that could earn them huge profit.

"This is a matter of changing your mindset; if you think that after graduation you will be employed and if you do not get employment, you will be totally discouraged, and start complaining against the government ...while the same government has opened the chance for you to invest," she said.

She added that the government has minimal chances to employ all the graduates; therefore, the best permanent solution was for the graduates to use their academic skills, create jobs because there are abundant resources in their localities. During the meeting, the students said that they have been facing challenges when it comes to the question of employment after graduation.

They mentioned the challenges as lack of experience, corruption and favouritism in terms of "who you know and not what you know" in job seeking. Contributing to the matter, a lecturer from Eckernforde University based in Tanga, Ms Ancyfrida Prosper, said that entrepreneurship skills should be taught from primary school level as a subject, in order to prepare youths for self employment.

She said many graduates do not know how to prepare business plans, thus it is harder for them access loans, as financial institutes need such documents before releasing the money.

VOA country coordinator Ms Diana Sindagi said her organization through the project of "Je Nifanyeje" is being conducting meetings for university students to discuss the matter of employment and particularly helping girls make precise and accurate decisions on social -economic matter that could impact their lives forever.