Tanzania Ministry of Energy and Minerals is to establish a special local content unit in the country to strengthen citizen accessibility of information on the oil and gas industry, the ministry Senior Supplies Officer Neema Lungangira said.

“Government through the ministry is setting up various strategies to enable the citizens fully participate in the oil and gas sector and one of the strategies is the establishment of the special local content unit,” she said.

Lungangira was reacting to the findings by Local NGO Twaweza, which in a latest report noted that citizens lack the basic knowledge about the country’s oil sector operations as a result of gaps originated by the state.

“Citizens are significantly misinformed about the potential of the country’s gas deposits. Almost 2 out of 10 (or 17%) think that they will be employed in the sector,” reads part of the report

Twaweza in a report titled Great Expectations: Citizen’s views about the gas sector, notes that citizens do not have access to full information about Tanzania’s gas sector. The report details further that  more than half (53%) think that gas from the new offshore discoveries is already flowing.

Six out of ten Tanzanians sampled in the report believe that both the Government and foreign companies are already earning revenues from the gas

Read Excerpts of Twaweza report