Wisely use TASAF grants to grow in business, beneficiaries tipped

MBEYA: The Minister of Education, Science, and Technology, Prof. Adolf Mkenda has called on beneficiaries of projects managed by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) to seize the opportunity to strengthen their economic status and move beyond dependence on the fund.

Prof. Mkenda emphasized the importance of using TASAF support to expand businesses and become self-sufficient entrepreneurs, which would benefit both individual development and the nation’s progress.

“To achieve the goal of economically uplifting Tanzanians living in poverty, each beneficiary should focus on growing their businesses and become self-reliant. This will, in turn, create opportunities for others to benefit from the program,” he stated.

Tanzania started implementing TASAF from the year 2000, offering an approach to poverty alleviation that also supported the decentralization agenda.

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During 2009 – 2012, under Tanzania Social Action Fund, a conditional cash transfer (CCT) was piloted in three districts Kibaha, Bagamoyo, and Chamwino in Tanzania Mainland. The impact evaluation of the pilot showed significant impacts on health, education, and household asset creation.

On the basis of this, the traditional Social Action Fund interventions evolved into a comprehensive and integrated social safety net system since 2012 with implementation of the first phase of the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN I).

The objective of PSSN I was to enable poor households to increase incomes and opportunities while improving consumption.

PSSN I achieved its target of reaching and registering its intended beneficiary population of one million households by September 2015.Through PSSN I (2013 – 2019) Cash transfers have been provided to over one million households in 10,000 villages in 161 Project Area Authorities (City/Municipal/District/Town Councils) Unguja and Pemba in Zanzibar.