By STEVEN ZANDE –
THE Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) council of ministers has urged the company’s board of directors to draft a business plan to justify the required capital injection from shareholders.
This follows a meeting held between Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba and his Tanzanian counterpart Makame Mbarawa, which revealed that TAZARA was in need of additional funding.
“We noted that there was still a need for injection of investment funds in the authority, and the two Governments remained fully committed to sourcing re-capitalisation funds. However, we urged the board of directors to make a proper business case to justify shareholder funding,” the communique read.
This is contained in a communique jointly issued on March 10 this year, following the 62nd TAZARA council of ministers meeting held in Lusaka.
The ministers observed that performance of TAZARA had  improved after change of top management and operational technical adjustments in the last two years.
It was noted that despite funding to the institution, a lot still needed to be done to further enhance performance and achieve breakeven levels.
The council also directed the TAZARA board of directors to discipline erring company managers to restore integrity in the institution.
The communique further noted that progress had been made towards a review of the TAZARA Act to transform the institution to make it more business-oriented, and urged the board to expedite the process and conclude the review within one month.