Features

Kenyan tenderpreneurs offer to train Tanzanian counterparts

Monday, May 10th, 2021 00:00 | By
Kenyan tenderpreneurs.

Mambo Matata

Describing the new relations with Tanzania as the best thing to have happen to the region since independence, Kenyan tenderpreneurs have said the stronger ties promise more opportunities for them. 

They have now offered to help their Dar es Salaam counterparts bring their tendering skills and practices to the 21st Century, saying doing so would also enable the Kenyan tenderpreneurs operate more effectively in the neighbouring country.

Impeachable sources intimated that a group of businessmen and private developers was planning to send a delegation to Tanzania to meet President Samia Suluhu and present her with gifts and petition her to open up her country to Kenya’s globally renowned tenderpreneurs. 

“There is an urgent need to harmonise tendering practices in the East African region to enable cross-border corruption.

For far too long, graft has been a localised affair and in the spirit of the East African Community, tenderpreneurs should be allowed to operate freely in the region,” said the source.

The Kenya Association of Tenderpreneurs (KAT) says there is a lot that Kenyans can teach their Tanzania counterparts on the tendering process, contract acquisition and getting away with murder.

KAT chair Haraka Mali described the tendering process of our southern neighbour as habit archaic, cumbersome, thus slowing down business and progress of the country.

“For example, there is a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy in their tendering practices which is not good for business.

We would like to introduce to the Tanzanians our state-of-the-art contracting system where one can have their tender faster than you can say tender and have the money in the bank in a matter of days or, better still, in a sack in a matter of minutes,” Mali said, citing the latest pass-by tendering system as something that Tanzania need to urgently adopt if they hope to ever catch up with Kenya.

He also mentioned the Covid-19 supplies tenders which, he said, had once again confirmed Kenya as a global leader in tenderpreneural innovations.

Tanzanian economy, he said, would greatly benefit if their tenderpreneurs were to borrow a leaf from Kenyan contracting practices and systems.

Mali criticised Dar es Salaam’s earlier response to the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it had resulted in the loss of a lot of tendering opportunities. 

“Imagine, if, like Kenya, Tanzanian tenderpreneurs had smelt opportunities from early as January 2020 when the disease was still largely in China and had not even been declared a pandemic?

Imagine all the Covid trillionaires that Dar es Salaam would currently be boasting of?” he asked.

Mali said he hoped Tanzania had learnt vital lessons from its past mistakes and will now act accordingly to ensure opportunities arising from the pandemic are properly utilised.

The KAT chairman also urged Tanzanians to properly appreciate their hardworking tenderpreneurs by, for example, electing them to public office where their expertise is sorely needed.

“Instead of ostracizing or jailing them, as some misguided countries do, Tanzania should learn from Kenya how to reward their tenderpreneurs,” said Mali.

Other than electing them to high office Kenyan style, he said, Tanzanians should also profusely praise their tenderpreneurs, invite them to church harambees and gratefully accept handouts from them whenever they pass by in their big cars.

“These are the successful sons and daughters of the soil and Tanzanians must learn from Kenya how to appreciate and make good use of them,” he said.

Mali extended an invitation to the Tanzanian tenderpreneurs to visit Kenya to benchmark on the best practices.

“They will learn invaluable lessons on how to clinch that contract without breaking a sweat, how to deliver air, where to invest the proceeds and how to take the criminal justice system in cycles for years on end,” he said. [email protected]

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