The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tanzania

  • Tanzania will be tough- Oliseh

    Tanzania will be tough- Oliseh

    Super Eagles chief coach, Sunday Oliseh has  insisted that he is not expecting the Taifa Stars of Tanzania to go down easily when they face Nigeria Super in  on September 5 in an AFCON 2017 qualifier.

    According to the former International “Tanzania is a good team, and they are defending the name of their country, just like we are also defending that of our country. Most of the players we have called to camp, are those who are hungry and ready to make names for themselves. I am very confident they would deliver when the chips are down” he concluded.

    In another development, Oliseh has issued a new programme for journalists willing to cover the team’s training starting from today.

    According to a message circulated by the Media Officer of the team, Toyin Ibitoye, henceforth, sports writers would only be allowed into the training venue for only the first 15 minutes of the training session, after which they would excuse the team to conitune their tactical training. This is to avoid any sort of distraction in trainings “this is to inform you that henceforth, only the first 15 minutes of the Super Eagles would be opened to journalists to cover. Thereafter, they would leave the training venue. However, these would always be a media interaction every Thursdays” Ibitoye said.

  • Joel Obi fit for Tanzania clash

    Joel Obi fit for Tanzania clash

    • Nigerian to spend 5 – 7 days after MRI scan

    Torino are optimistic that Joel Obi will be available for selection when they tackle Fiorentina in the Italian Serie A on Sunday, August 30, six days before the Super Eagles face off with Tanzania.

    They were boosted by the news that the Nigeria international would have to spend between 5 – 7 days on the sidelines after he underwent magnetic resonance imaging on Thursday.

    Tests conducted revealed a functional overload to the semitendinosus muscle of the attacking midfielder’s left thigh.

    Joel Obi has been plagued by injuries in the last three years which has limited his appearances in the Serie A to just 9 starts from a possible 114 games.

    It is assumed that he failed to make the Super Eagles 2014 World Cup roster after failing to prove his fitness in the training camp prior to the tournament in Brazil.

  • NFF confirm: Eagles’ trip to Tanzania secured

    NFF confirm: Eagles’ trip to Tanzania secured

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has tidied up all arrangements surrounding Nigeria’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying match away to Tanzania in Dar es Salaam, thenff.com can report.

    Already, the NFF has concluded agreement with a leading Nigeria airline to fly the team into Dar es Salaam and back to Nigeria, with departure to be from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the return set for the Port Harcourt International Airport.

    NFF officials confirmed on Wednesday that the chartered aircraft will convey the delegation into Dar es Salaam on the eve of the match, as Tanzania is a high altitude zone.

    The delegation will depart Dar es Salaam immediately after the match, and fly to Port Harcourt, where the Super Eagles have an international friendly against the Mena of Niger on September 8.

    Arrangements for the hotel where the Super Eagles will stay in Dar es Salaam have also been finalised, according to NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi.

    Nigeria and Egypt have three points each from the Matchday 1 of the qualification series to be on top of Group G, though the Pharaohs have scored one more goal and are slightly ahead following their 3-0 defeat of Tanzania in Cairo.

    On the same weekend, the Pharaohs will travel to Ndjamena to confront the Les Sao of Chad.

  • Keshi: How to beat Tanzania

    Keshi: How to beat Tanzania

    •Big Boss submits plans to NFF
    •Home-based to start camping August 15
    •Technical report on Chad match submitted too

    Super Eagles’ Chief Coach Stephen Keshi, like he told reporters when he came to face the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), is leaving no stone unturned to ensure Nigeria qualifies for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

    SportingLife scooped from a competent source at the Federation that Keshi has submitted his programme for the next AFCON qualifying match against Tanzania in September.

    The source disclosed that what was paramount with the Coach was how to qualify for the continental tournament and thereby redeem his image and the country’s image too since the country failed to do so this year in Equatorial Guinea.

    “Keshi has put behind him the allegation of applying for the Cote d’Ivoire coaching job and he is determined to qualify the Super Eagles for the AFCON by submitting his programme for the game against Tanzania in September to NFF”, the source disclosed yesterday.

    The source also revealed that the programme the former coach of Togo and Mali submitted was titled ‘How to beat Tanzania’ which was submitted to the Secretariat of the NFF last week.

    According to the programme, the camp is expected to open on Saturday, August 15, 2015 with the home-based Super Eagles players kick-starting the camping exercise in Abuja, before the foreign-based join a few days to the team’s departure to Tanzania.

    The impeccable source also revealed further that Keshi also submitted the technical report of the Super Eagles versus Chad match, which kick-started the qualifying series of the AFCON which the Eagles won 2-0 in Kaduna recently.

    The Technical Committee of the NFF will later meet to make input and suggestions to the programmes submitted by Keshi before it would be finally ratified by the Executive Board of the NFF. The technical committee of the NFF will also deliberate on the Eagles versus Chad’s technical report.

  • 2017 AFCON qualifier: Tanzania sack coach ahead of Eagles’ clash

    2017 AFCON qualifier: Tanzania sack coach ahead of Eagles’ clash

    The Tanzanian Football Federation have confirmed they have dismissed the Dutchman after becoming frustrated by his poor results

    Coach Martin Ignatius has been fired as head coach of the Tanzanian national team.

    The Taifa Stars has lost their last two international games under the Dutchman’s stewardship, with their 3-0 home defeat to Uganda in a CHAN 2016 qualifier their latest.

    Last Sunday’s 3-0 defeat away at Egypt in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier proved to be the straw that broke the Camel’s hunch, after they had lost all their games at the Cosafa Cup – with the 61-year-old now officially relieved of his duties with his back room staff.

    Tanzanian Football Federation president Jamal Malinzi released a statement that the coach popularly known as ‘Mart Nooij’ ceases to be the handler of the Taifa with immediate effect.

    “TFF announces the termination of employment of current coach Mart Nooij together with his entire technical bench with immediate effect following the spate of poor results involving the national team Taifa Stars” the statement read.

    Nigeria travel to the east African nation for their next game of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

  • Wither Egypt, Tanzania, Chad?

    Nigeria has been drawn in Group G at the Africa Cup of Nations draws held in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday. The presence of Egypt and Tanzania is the impetus that the Super Eagles need to qualify.

    The two-legged ties against Egypt hold a lot for the Eagles, who get better when the odds are against them – like now. Egypt is a struggling team now although the Eagles aren’t better in the way our big stars respond to Nigeria’s matches.

    But if the NFF keep to their plans to rejuvenate the team, Egypt could be a walk in the park for the Eagles. Nigeria has players to make most tournaments a default for us to win. If the chief coach works with his members and allows his list to be discussed with experts in the game, the team would be more formidable.

    Such scrutiny by technocrats in the game will eliminate the presence of injured players in the team. This group will question the inclusion of bench warmers in the squad. They will also help the coaches to do the spy job on our group opponents (Egypt, Chad and Tanzania). The coaches must work with the documents sent to them instead of tearing them or ignoring their observations. Where they are in doubt, it is only fair that the coaches call the experts to educate them on the contentious part of the documents.

    The suggestion by the NFF to reduce the number of foreign-based players picked for our international matches is good. It amounts to sheer waste of public cash if coaches invite 29 foreign-based players for a game when indeed only 13 players can play any game. Our coaches can prune the list to 13 at the most and fill the others with home-grown talents from the domestic leagues. The domestic league is the barometer which can be sued to evaluate the growth of the game here. There cannot be a better place to gauge it than with the number of local leagues boys in the Super Eagles. This is the right way forward. Are the coaches reading this?

  • Tanzania: Tigo signs money transfer service deal with Vodacom

    Millions of M-Pesa and Tigo Pesa customers in Tanzania will soon be  sending and receiving money directly into each others’ wallets. This followed the recent signing of a mobile money interoperability agreement between Tigo and Vodacom.

    The agreement will see four million Tigo Pesa users exchanging money directly with seven million M-Pesa customers. According to both parties, this is yet another tangible step towards the enhancement of  financial inclusion in Tanzania as well as the expansion of  the mobile money ecosystem in Tanzania.

    The International Finance Corporation (IFC) formulated the mobile-wallet-to wallet standards with support from Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), (standards) which have been the basis of the interoperability discussions between mobile network operators in Tanzania.

    Speaking at the signing ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Rene Meza, Vodacom Tanzania’s Managing Director said: “This is a great evolution of the mobile money service in Tanzania. Our customers will soon be able to directly access the money received through Tigo Pesa and use it for whatever purposes they may have without necessarily having to cash it out.”

    M-Pesa users can pay for an array of services from their phones. These include; TV subscriptions, Flights, Insurance services, Utilities, Taxes, School fees, Pension Contributions  and Loans to name but a few.

    In support of this, Meza added: “M-Pesa has added so much value to the lives of Tanzanians over the past seven years and the fact that this agreement with Tigo will see even more Tanzanians using our services to better their lives is indeed a major milestone. We expect to launch the service by the end of the year and are currently working on upgrading our M-Pesa platform which will see us invest in excess of Tshs 150 billion to cater for the expected growth of users.”

    Meza went on to say that  the agreement signed between the country’s two mobile operators would allow Vodacom’s M-Pesa users to directly send and receive money to an additional four million Tigo Pesa users across the country at no additional cost or inconvenience to them by the end of the year.

    “We are now working to ensure that we have both the technology and requisite resources needed to provide the quality of service that our customers have come to expect from us through the years we are nevertheless excited about the opportunities posed by this new operating model,” Meza said.

  • Tanzania’s GDP expands by 32% after rebasing

    Tanzania’s gross domestic product has expanded by 32 per cent after the state rebased its calculation to incorporate new sectors in the economy, including big discoveries of natural gas, officials said.

    The East African country’s GDP stood at 69.8 trillion Tanzanian shillings ($41.33 billion) last year after the rebasing, up from a previous estimate of 53 trillion shillings, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

    “The rebasing of the GDP takes into account new transformations in the economy, such as the ongoing mobile phone revolution in the country,” Finance Minister Saada Mkuya told a news conference.

    Farming remains Tanzania’s economic mainstay, while tourism, mining, communications and financial services are the other key sectors. Tanzania has also made big natural gas discoveries, with revenues expected to give a boost to the economy by 2020.

    As with other rebasings in Africa, the move takes into account structural and other economic changes, such as fast-growing mobile phone communications and ongoing hydrocarbon exploration activity.

    The base year for calculations was changed to 2007 from 2001 and the NBS said GDP growth for 2013 was subsequently revised up to 7.3 percent from seven per cent previously.

    Humphrey Moshi, a professor of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam, said the expansion would give investors more confidence in Tanzania.

    “The rebasing of the GDP will allow for comparability of economic data between Tanzania and its east African neighbours such as Kenya and Uganda, which have also recently rebased their economies,” he told Reuters.

    Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, revised up its GDP by 25 percent to $53.4 billion in 2013 after rebasing, from $42.6 billion previously.

    However, Moshi said the economy still faced serious challenges, such as a budget deficit and inflationary pressures.

    “Power availability remains erratic and the government needs to restore the trust of donors after they suspended aid to the country due to high-level corruption scandals.”

    Tanzania’s Attorney-General resigned, becoming the first political casualty in an energy corruption scandal that has led Western donors to delay aid.

  • AYC: Flying Eagles beat Tanzania’s Heroes 6-1

    Nigeria has qualified for the final round of the qualifiers for next year’s AYC in Senegal. The Flying Eagles on Saturday beat visiting Ngorongoro Heroes of Tanzania 4-1 in Kaduna to advance 6-1 on aggregate to qualify.

  • Manu changes Flying Eagles squad for Tanzania

    Manu changes Flying Eagles squad for Tanzania

    Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba is planning several changes to his starting XI for today’s 2015 African Youth Championship qualifier against Tanzania in Kaduna.

    Nigeria’s U- 20s beat their Tanzanian counterparts 2-0 in Dar es Salaam a fortnight ago.

    Coach Manu is now most likely to start Abubakar Aliyu ahead of Izu Omego in the heart of the defence alongside Wilfred Ndidi.

    Aliyu is a big, commanding central defender and he is expected to deal better with the long balls of the Tanzanians and their bigger strikers.

    And the coach will also have to decide on whether to start FC Porto forward, Chidera Eze ahead of his most effective striker Alhassan Ibrahim ‘Mu-azam’.

    Eze has picked form since he recovered from a hamstring injury which ensured he did not make the trip to Tanzania.

    ‘Mu-azam’ has struggled with hamstring strains days leading to the return match, but his defensive capabilities could well give him the nod ahead of Eze.

    Taiwo Awoniyi will again lead the attack after he scored in the first leg in Tanzania.

    Meanwhile, visiting Ngorongoro Heroes of Tanzania suffered a huge setback going into the second leg in Kaduna as they will be without skipper and goalkeeper Aishi Manula.

    Ngorongoro coach John Simkoko said Manula, who was forced out after the first half of the first leg due to injury, is on full international duty with Tanzania after he recovered from the injury.

    Interestingly,Tanzania are fresh from a training stint in Qatar.

    Officials disclosed that as many as 6,000 security men will be on duty at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.

    “Everything is being done to ensure the safety of everyone involved in this match,” said a top police officer.