BUSINESS LEADERS FROM YOUNG PRESIDENTS’ ORGANIZATIONSEEK GROWTH AND EXTENDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES IN TANZANIA, AFRICA’S NEWEST FRONTIER

The Managing Director of Sumaria Group, Ankush Shah and Hussein Hamadi, Chairman of Darling Tanzania and honorary Consul of Sierra Leone addressing journalists in Dar es salaam yesterday during the opening of the two day meeting for over sixty business leaders from Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), ,the world’s premier network of chief executives and business leaders who are meeting in Dar es Salaam to share insights about the top investment opportunities in Tanzania.(Photo: Our Staff Photographer).

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Over sixty business leaders from Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), ,the world’s premier network of chief executives and business leaders, are meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 6-8 Oct 2015, to share insights about the top investment opportunities in Tanzania.

“With YPO presence in 17countries in Africa, our membership growth is set to continue to gain momentum in the faster growing markets in Central, West and East Africa providing young business leaders access to a global peer community with a commitment to lifelong learning and idea exchange,” says new Regional Chair Riël Malan, the group managing director of Unlimited Group Western Cape, one of the largest and most diversified fresh produce groups in South Africa.

“Tanzania is known as the ‘sleeping giant’ of East Africa and has huge untapped potential,” saysChairman of YPO Tanzania and event organizer of the “Doing Business in Tanzania” event,Ankush Shah, Managing Director of SumariaGroup. 

“This is a pivotal moment in the country’s history as the capital markets are liberalizing and opening Tanzania up to investmentandthe EAC trade.We are proving, once again, that Tanzania is one of the most established and peaceful democracies in Africa.

 This could be the moment that marks Tanzania’s rise to fulfil its potential and YPO leaders are at the forefront of this development.”

While the latest YPO Global Pulse Confidence Index for Africa, which tracks CEO confidence levels in the region on a quarterly basis, slipped 3.2 points to 57.4, on the back of a sharp drop in confidence in South Africa, the region’s largest economy, the YPO Global Pulse Sales Index for Africa is still extremely positive.

 Two-thirds (67%) of CEOs in Africa expected to increase revenues over the next 12 months, with less than one in ten (7%) predicting a decline.

Local YPO members attending the event include some of the top industry leaders in Tanzania, including:

· Liz Lloyd, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank

· Diego Gutierrez, General Manager of Tigo telecom

· Sanjay Suchak, Managing Director of African Risk and Insurance Services

· Shaffin Jamal, Chairman of Union Trust Investments

· MoezMirr, Managing Director of Kenya Commercial Bank

· Hussein Hamadi, Chairman of Darling Tanzania and honorary consul of Sierra Leone.

Mr. Hamadi said: “Businesspeople all over the world are looking for places to invest and what to invest in. Unlike most of the world where investment opportunities and resources have been depleted, Tanzania's opportunities and resources are yet to be tapped. Tanzania offers a very unique platform for investments, from the human capital to the natural resources, industrial, services, agriculture, tourism, mining, oil and gas and many other sectors.””

They are expected to focus on investment opportunities across the economic spectrum in one of the fastest growing and most-resource rich countries in Africa.

The keynote address will be delivered by Omari Issa, CEO of Tanzania’s President’s Delivery Bureau (“Big Results Now”) established in July 2013 to oversee Tanzania’s Public Service Delivery Transformation Programme. Other speakers include Ms. Juliet Kairuki, Executive Director of the Tanzania Investment Centre, and Yutaka Yoshino, Sr. Economist, Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management & Acting Program Leader (Burundi, Malawi, Somalia & Tanzania).