Tanzania President Samia Suluhu has thrown a jibe at a neighbouring country that has run out of its forex reserves.
Samia says that the neighbour has run out of US dollars and has been begging for help behind closed doors while pretending everything is okay.
Samia noted that the neighbour is so broke that she doesn’t have enough dollars to last a week.
“One of our neighbours here does not have (US dollar reserves) even for one week,” she said.
According to Samia, the Tanzania economy is currently stable and has forex reserves that are adequate for a coverage of up to four months.
“Economically, we are the best in EAC, while everyone else is complaining of lack of forex reserves, we have enough for four months,” she said.
Samia added that the broke neighnour has also been begging Tanzania to guarantee her so that she can get fuel from the Middle East on debt.
“We are getting requests to guarantee them so that they can be loaned fuel,” said Samia. “When they come to us for help, I tell them we are in the same situation although our economy is stronger.”
Samia’s jibe has been interpreted as being directed at Kenya which is currently facing a forex crisis that the government appears clueless on how to resolve.
Over the past one month alone, the shilling has fallen from Sh. 124 against the US dollar to lows of Sh. 128. This has given rise to a black market for US dollar with commercial banks selling US dollars at highs of between Sh. 138 and Sh. 140.
