Tanzanian President 'Orders Gold Reserve'

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has ordered the central bank to create a gold reserve, reports the AFP news agency.

"We should start buying gold, the central bank must invest in this," Mr Magufuli is quoted as saying in the main city, Dar es Salaam.

"We must have our reserves in dollars but also our reserves in gold, because gold is money."

The move is part of his drive to better control mineral exports, AFP adds.

Mr Magufuli is reported as saying that mineral smugglers considered Tanzania to be "an immense country brimming with minerals, with gold, with everything, but a territory of people who are asleep".

In 2017 the Tanzanian government gave Gold miner Acacia a $190bn (£149bn) bill for what it said was unpaid taxes for understating its gold exports - something Acacia said was untrue.