Tanzania’s 1.8 trillion Tshs ($705m) energy ministry budget for 2024/2025 has put fresh focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance(ESG) in oil and gas sector.
Passed by Parliament in Dodoma today afternoon, the budget has shed some light on the government’s plans to approve regulations to guide Corporate Social Responsibilities so that companies investing in the oil and gas sector can optimally be accountable to the communities in their CSR engagements.
The Minister for Energy Dr Doto Biteko said that to ensure that communities neighbouring oil and gas projects benefit from that the resource, the government would approve regulations to guide Corporate Social Responsibilities so that companies can optimally be accountable to the communities.
With regard to service levy given out by oil and gas companies to various district councils, he instructed that local authorities should ensure that part of the funds go back to specific villages where such investments exist.
“Permanent Secretary, please communicate with your counterpart at the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government Tanzania (PO-RALG) to come up with a strategic plan to ensure the service levy goes to the specific areas where these projects are being implemented.The President has already directed that she does not want complaints from these communities where gas is being exploited. Service levy and CSR will now be on the radar.”
He noted that CSR is not a secret and thus should be transparent to the communities and local Members of Parliament.Its the right of the communities to get information on the accountability of the companies to these communities.
Parliament passed the Ministry of Energy’s budget which will cost 1.8 trillion shillings( $705m) for expenditure in the 2024/2025 financial year.95 percent of the budget will go to development investments.
Orton Kiishweko is an African based journalist who has previously worked at The Citizen and Daily News in EastAfrica.He has produced reporting for other publications such as IPS Africa, Forbes Africa, New York Times , Guardian UK and Diplomat EastAfrica.He also worked as an independent ESG specialist on Africa and at an urban upgrading WorldBank project.Prior to that, he worked at Juntos Global, a Silicon Valley based firm where he led user-design innovation in the region, whilst scaling to serve financial institutions in Tanzania,Uganda,Zambia and Rwanda.Email:[email protected]