How Tanzania's new capital Dodoma is changing

 

Dodoma's population has grown from less than a million people in the 70s to More Than 3 million people in 2022 that comes with increased opportunities for business but also a rise in demand for supporting infrastructure and housing. Since Independence in 1961 Tanzanians seeking important government services had to travel to the coastal city of Dares Salaam, which was the country's capital, but this often proved to be a logistical nightmare as the location was not Central to change this, the government designated Dodoma as the country's new capital in 1973 located about 450 kilometers from Dar es Salaam.

The Dodoma is at the center of the country it was considered ideal in spreading regional development due to its Geographic Advantage as a transport intersection. The shift to the new city then was to happen in 10 years' time but it was not implemented until after more than four decades in 2019.The late former president John pombe Magu Fuli officially relocated to Dodoma with a promise to shift all governments Services there by the end of that year. Since then, it has been a Race Against Time and now the city is like a big construction site.

I'm meeting a real estate developer here to find out what this shift has meant for them. What changes have you witnessed since the government moved its operations to Dodoma? Yeah we have witnessed many changes because previously the cost of land in Dodoma was low but now after the government moved here, the value has gone up for example in 2019 in an area like this we, used to sell one square meter at about 2 US dollars but now we sell one square meter at 4.5 US dollars so in other terms in 2019, you could buy 600 square meters of a piece of land for 260 dollars. But now you can subdivide that same piece of land into four pieces and sell each one of them for 1280 dollars.

That is a big change how are you fulfilling the demand for land and housing here in Dodoma as a company we have been working to map several areas and subdivide the parcels of land to fit the reduce their need for personally needs of our customers. We also do checks to ensure land security for the customers and visiting the different areas in search of the landowners to negotiate and buy because that used to be a challenge for this area. We work closely with the Dodoma city council. They set the prices for pieces of land in different areas according to their own assessment and thereafter they give us the pieces of land to sell at the set prices.

What challenges are you facing maybe in terms of infrastructure? the government needs to put in a bit more effort like roads and electricity so that people can start building another challenge that our customers tell us that they have faced is delays in getting land ownership documents which are required before they can get permission to build. You must have the title lead before you can be given approval to constructs audience located 17 kilometers from the city center is yet another construction site. The government City also known as Magu Fuli City it spans about 617 hectares and will host all government Ministries and foreign embassies authorities. 

Here estimate that its construction will cost about 4.8 billion US dollars farms and villagers once dotted this area, but they were cleared to make way for the new city under construction that transformation comes with a need for supporting amenities which did not exist previously. The country's National Housing Corporation is in charge of the construction of eight Ministries at Magu Fuli City out of the 27 Ministries being constructed. Here we are building eight of them and Consulting for two. When did this project start? and what is the projected timeline?

we started Construction in October 2021, and we are expected to finish this year. After 24 months apart from government offices the state agency is also working to meet the accommodation needs of citizens. We visited some of the houses in the outskirts of the city since the announcement was made to move to Dodoma. There has been a shortage of housing but as an agency we are nearing the construction of 700 residential houses some are complete, but others are not, and this include shops and clubhouses. The 700 houses are for sale to any Tanzanian moving to Dodoma we started with 303 houses in the first phase then in the second phase we are constructing 404 houses with the aim of getting to one thousand.

The plan is to continue constructing to fulfill the demand for housing. what challenges are you facing? our biggest challenge has been the fluctuation in prices of building materials mostly brought about by the Russia and Ukraine war for business. Tanzania is not a fast country to shift its capital other countries have worked this road before Malawi moved its capital from Zumba to Lilongwe in 1975. while Nigeria affected a similar change from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. We spoke to the regional government representative in Dodoma on what has been accomplished so far and the timelines currently two of the three government organs are already in Dodoma. That is the executive or rather Office of the President and Parliament we expect that within 2023 the Judiciary will also shift to Dodoma in terms of other government departments 70 percent are in Dodoma.

 We expect some other 24 institutions to move to Dodoma this year this has meant that many people moved to Dodoma and until last year we had 18 000 civil servants who had moved to the DOMA.so what can Dodoma do to solidify its place as the new capital and attracts trade and investment let's hear from an expert? I think there are some areas that are needed more Improvement for example in terms of infrastructure development. The load infrastructure they had a plan of having sure that um we will have the ring loads.so probably I think um they can complete that um plan by making sure that at least we can be able to minimize the traffic jam and other forecasted impacts which are coming but you also making sure that the services necessary services to the household are accessible.

Like other water so far, we see there is a high demand of water not affordable for construction but also for domestic use. Also the issue of electrification so if people they want to connect they want to connect the connection? um at least they can get it on time but also the issue of a land ownership in terms of those title Deeds at least see they can be accessed on time people can have enough time to to develop their houses develop some industrial activities on time because um there is some delay for some of the title this access. So, I think the youth can also do something in terms of making sure that hey fully utilize the potentials of the ICT.

For example, by making sure that the goose can be like um people can order online but also, they can have companies which are connected. The construction and also, we have service providers who are needed by different institutions like um cleaning and the other kind of service providing activities so if they do that probably they could be able to exploit those opportunities.