Economic Mission to Tanzania

Present-day Tanzania was born of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on 26 April 1964. It is the largest country in the East African Community and the second largest in terms of GNP (USD 75.73 billion in 2022 – WB). Its 950,000 km² territory is rich in minerals and the mining sector accounts for over 50% of the country’s total exports. Economic growth in Tanzania, which has a population of +/- 67 million, was 5% for Tanzania and 6% for Zanzibar in 2023, with projections of 5.5% and 7.4% for 2024 (Tanzania Invest). Growth drivers include infrastructure development, a growing consumer base and the country’s natural resources.

Tanzania plans to build a 50 km bridge to link Zanzibar to the mainland. The project to build Africa’s longest bridge is in line with Dar es Salaam’s policy of developing intra-continental trade; it is currently building a transcontinental rail network to connect neighbouring states such as DRC, Uganda and Burundi.

Tanzanian agriculture is the country’s largest employer (over 65% of the workforce), and contributes 30% of GDP. The main crops are corn, cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, bananas, millet, tobacco, coffee, tea, cashew nuts, sisal and cotton.

Tanzania, which also boasts 64,000 km² of lakes, an exclusive 223,000 km² economic zone and 58,000 km² of wetlands, produces around 800,000 metric tons of fish.

Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania since 19 March 2021, and her government have taken steps to combat corruption and the waste of public money. These measures have enabled the government to obtain grants and loans on favourable terms from international multilateral development institutions. The changes implemented by the new government have prompted companies to change their way of working, creating uncertainty for some and satisfaction for others.

Tanzania has banned mineral exports in a bid to modernise its industrial infrastructure. The country’s subsoil is rich in minerals and raw materials that can no longer be freely exported: gold, iron, nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, kaolin, titanium, platinum, silver, graphite, natural gas, diamonds and other precious stones. Today, these minerals must be processed locally to stimulate industrialisation, otherwise they are subject to special taxation. These provisions create interesting export opportunities for processing technologies, machinery and services.

The country’s capital, Dodoma (2,576km²), has 800,000 inhabitants, just 10% of the population of Dar es Salaam (1,493km²), currently estimated at 8,161,231. Technically, all ministries and international institutions will have to move to Dodoma, but the shortage of housing and office space and the lack of infrastructure make the capital less attractive than Dar es Salaam.

In principle, all segments offer opportunities, including water, healthcare, education, industrialisation, services, automotive, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machine tools, leisure, banking, construction, property and aeronautics.