Tanzanian president inaugurates tannery and footwear factory
The president of Tanzania, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, has formally opened a tannery and finished product factory that will make finished leather, footwear, leather soles, bags, belts and garments in Moshi, the capital of the country’s Kilimanjaro region.
Kilimanjaro International Leather Industries will aim to produce 13 million square-feet of finished leather per year.Around 60% of this leather will remain on site for the company to use itself to make 1.2 million pairs of shoes and boots per year in addition to as many as 2 million pairs of soles.
It will employ 3,000 people directly and, in addition, create 7,000 indirect jobs.
Kilimanjaro International Leather Industries is jointly owned by two public bodies. The Public Service Social Security Fund, a pensions and social security provider for public-sector employees in Tanzania, owns 86%. The country’s prisons department, which supplied the land for the construction of the tannery, owns the other 14%.
These organisations have said total investment in the project will be more than €50 million, including substantial investment in machinery from Italy.
At the launch event, Dr Magufuli told an audience of local dignitaries and industry representatives that, within a year, they would all be wearing shoes produced in the new factory.
