Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Tuesday, March 30, nominated finance minister Philip Mpango, 63, as the countrys new Vice President. Mpango was presented to parliament for approval, as under the constitution the new Vice President has to be approved by at least 50 per cent of the Members of Parliament. In Parliament, in the capital Dodoma, the nomination was subsequently approved by all the 363 MPs shortly after Mpango’s name was presented to the speaker of Parliament Job Ndugai earlier in the day. Mpango will now be sworn in by the Chief Justice as the Vice President on a date yet to be confirmed. Mpango will now fill the VP position left vacant when Suluhu took oath on March 19, as the sixth president of her country following the death of John Magufuli on March 17. Until Tuesdays nomination, Mpango was the Minister for Finance and Planning of Tanzania, since November 2015. He previously held positions as the Acting Commissioner General of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the Executive Secretary in the President’s Office (Planning Commission), the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the Personal Assistant to the President (Economic Affairs). He also worked as Senior Economist for the World Bank, Visiting Lecturer in Public Economics, Collaborative Master’s program for Anglo-phone Africa, AERC, Nairobi-Kenya, and Lecturer, Economics Department University of Dar es Salaam.
