Sun Biofuels to Employ 1500 People in Kisarawe

29 March 2010

Dar Es Salaam — Sun Biofuels, a British firm that has invested in jatropha plantations in Tanzania, envisages offering full time employment to 1,500 Tanzanians in its jatropha biofuel project at Kisarawe.
Of the 1,500 people, 400 are already in the full time employment with the rest being taken in gradually as the project advances within the next four years.

Sun Biofuels Tanzania General Manager, Peter Auge said in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that the main beneficiaries of the employment will be residents from 11 villages bordering the project in the district.
He, however, said that it was not compulsory that all the 1500 people must come from the 11 villages, noting that some few skilled workers might be outsourced from other places.
The company Human Resources Manager, Mr Mohamed Tembo, said some people were furnishing wrong information pretending to come from the villages. "We later discovered that some were coming from far places."
According to Mtamba Village leader Mr Hamisi Lugalaba, employment to the villagers will better their lives as well as support government effort to conserve the environment through reduction of charcoal burning, the major income generating activity of people at the district.
Sun Biofuels Chief Executive Officer, Mr Richard Morgan said a total 287m/- has already been paid as compensation to individual villagers, with some villagers allegedly receiving as high as 23m/-.