Tanzania signs $1.3bn agreement with US

The US has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tanzania to invest more than $1.3bn in its health sector over the next five years, the latest in a series of deals that have caused controversy in some African countries, reports CNBC Africa. The agreement is similar to those struck with countries including Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda under US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First Global Health Strategy’, designed to make poorer nations more self-reliant as the US has dismantled foreign aid programmes. The pact says that in return for more than $1.3bn in investment, Tanzania has committed to investing $1.8bn in the health sector over the same period, according to a statement from the US embassy in Tanzania. In some countries the pacts have run into resistance over concerns about conditions like allowing access to minerals and sharing personal health data and bio materials. Zambia has rejected demands that such a deal be tied to US access to Zambian minerals while in Kenya a court in December suspended part of its deal until it hears a data privacy case filed by a consumer protection group. Tanzanian Health Minister Mohamed Mchengerwa said the agreement did not include the sharing of laboratory samples with the US.