Tanzania Eyes $3 bn in Foreign Investment After Trade Deal with India

Tanzania will target boosting investment from India, the East African nation’s biggest trading partner, by 10-fold in the next two years.

According to Bloomberg, the Tanzania Investment Centre expects foreign direct investment from India to jump to $3 billion a year by 2025 from $300 million.

Details about this investment plan were revealed by Gilead Teri, executive director at the investment promotion agency, in an interview from New Delhi.

Tanzania is among countries that have benefited the most from India’s recent focus on Africa, where New Delhi has opened about 15 new missions.

On October 9, Tanzania’s President Samia Hassan Suluhu met her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi where they upgraded their ties to a strategic partnership.

Modi pledged to expand cooperation in areas ranging from trade and investment to defence and counter-terrorism.

“Today we are transforming our age-old friendship into a strategic partnership,” Modi said at a joint media interaction with Hassan

Suluhu’s visit comes close on the heels of a pact for setting up the first overseas campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Tanzania.

It also coincides with the African Union’s entry into the G20 as a full member during the summit hosted by India last month.

Agreements Signed

Suluhu and Modi signed six agreements, including a technical agreement between the Indian Navy and Tanzania Shipping Agencies Corporation on sharing white shipping information, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on sharing digital public infrastructure,

They also signed an MoU between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and Tanzania Investment Centre for setting up an industrial park in Tanzania.

They will also work together to form a five-year roadmap in the defence sector. This will be beneficial for military training, maritime cooperation, capacity building and the defence industry.

India is the largest destination for Tanzania’s exports and two-way trade was worth $6.4 billion in 2022-23, including Indian exports of $3.9 billion.

It is the fifth largest investor in Tanzania with investments of $3.7 billion, and Indian companies have executed 630 projects and created 60,000 jobs.

Tanzania’s economy is forecast to outperform its peers in East Africa including Kenya.

In an IMF Economic Outlook report published Tuesday, Tanzania’s economy is projected to grow to 6.2 percent in 2024.

It’s poised to grow by 5.2 percent in 2023, higher than Kenya’s at 5 percent.