The government of Tanzania said on Friday it has already verified 2,363 out of 8,500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and announced an extension of authentication for another two weeks.
Last month the Tanzanian government announced a 14-day verification of the NGOs and suspension of registration of new NGOs until November 30.
Sihaba Nkinga, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, told a meeting of representatives of NGOs and the media in the political capital Dodoma that a lot of success had been achieved in the process.
"The turn-out for verification is very huge and the government has seen it wise to extend the September 4 deadline to September 20 to allow more time for the exercise," she said, adding that after the new deadline there would be no further extension.
Nkinga said any NGO that failed to comply or did not cooperate in the exercise would be deregistered, insisting that the aim was to know where the NGOs were and what they were doing.
The NGOs were required to submit original and photocopies of the registration certificate, receipts of annual membership fees or bank slips of the same payment since registration of the organization.
They were also required to submit a letter from the regional, district or municipal development officers confirming the existence of the organization and a copy of the NGO's constitution, certified by the registrar of NGOs.
Nkinga said registration of NGOs under the NGOs Act number 24 of 2002 started in 2005 and up to July 2017, there were 8,316 such institutions registered in different parts of the country.
Their duties cut across different issues and groups of people, such as health, education, environment, gender, agriculture, good governance and human rights, said Nkinga.
Ismail Suleiman, the Secretary of the National Council of NGOs (NACONGO), said his organization fully supported the ongoing verification aimed at improving their operations.
