As both Tanzania and the United States, under the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan and President Donald J. Trump respectively, place greater emphasis on economic diplomacy, and as each country has significant commercial value to offer the other, the time is now to further strengthen bilateral ties that has endured for more than six decades. Indeed, the foundations of this relationship run even deeper as the United States established one of its earliest consulates on the African continent in Zanzibar in the 1830s.
For many Americans, Tanzania is best known for Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest peak and the world’s highest free-standing mountain; the mighty Serengeti; the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater; and the exotic islands of Zanzibar. We take great pride in these natural wonders and in our rich history. However, Americans should also know that beyond this extraordinary beauty lies a country undergoing a remarkable transformation, one that presents significant opportunities for deeper economic cooperation, investment, and strategic partnership with the United States.
Tanzania has been ready for such a partnership for years. The United States simply needs to pay closer attention.
Under the exemplary leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the country has embarked on an ambitious reform agenda aimed at improving the business environment, strengthening institutions, and accelerating economic growth. These efforts are yielding tangible results.
Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines
Tanzania is now the highest-rated sovereign borrower in East Africa, earning a B+ rating from Fitch and a B1 rating from Moody's, reflecting growing confidence in the country's economic fundamentals.
The transformation of Tanzania’s infrastructure has been remarkable. Over the past five years, Tanzania's electricity generation capacity has more than doubled, driven in part by the completion of the 2,115-megawatt Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project. Major investments in roads, ports, railways, border facilities, power interconnections, and digital infrastructure are strengthening connectivity not only within Tanzania but across East, South and Central Africa.
Adding to that, Tanzania occupies a strategic position in one of the world's fastest-growing regions. Through the ports of Dar es Salaam, Mtwara, and Tanga, Tanzania serves as a gateway to several neighboring countries, including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and Malawi.
Air Tanzania, the national carrier, continues to expand its network both domestically and internationally, strengthening connectivity within Tanzania, across Africa, and beyond.
The completion of the remaining phases of the electrified Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which will eventually connect Tanzania with Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda will be a game changer.
As regional trade expands, Tanzania is increasingly emerging as a logistics, transportation, and commercial hub for the broader region. For American businesses, this presents significant opportunities.
The relationship between Tanzania and the United States has already evolved considerably in recent years. What was once largely defined by development assistance is increasingly characterized by trade, investment, and commercial engagements.
In 2023, Tanzania and the United States signed a $500 million Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Export-Import Bank aimed at expanding bilateral trade. The same year, Tanzania and the U.S. Department of Commerce launched a Commercial Dialogue to deepen economic cooperation. Meanwhile, partnerships between business organizations in Tanzania and the United States are helping create new pathways for investment and private-sector collaboration.
These initiatives are already producing results. In 2024, CRDB Bank secured a $320 million financing facility from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to support thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises in Tanzania and Burundi. The U.S. EXIM Bank also extended financing to support industrial development in Tanzania.
Unsurprisingly, bilateral trade in goods and services between the United States and Tanzania reached a record $1.4 billion in 2024, more than doubling over the previous five years.
Yet this impressive figure merely scratches the surface of the enormous untapped potential that exists between our Tanzania and the United States of America.
Tanzania is richly endowed with natural resources, including critical minerals that are indispensable to advanced technologies and the global energy transition. The country ranks first in Africa in rare earth element reserves and also boasts significant deposits of other world-class critical minerals, positioning it as a strategic partner in the industries of the future. The country also holds substantial reserves of precious metals, industrial minerals, energy minerals, and gemstones, including tanzanite, a rare gemstone found only in Tanzania.
The country also boasts vast agricultural potential, a rapidly expanding consumer market, and a young, dynamic population with a median age of just 17 years, one of the youngest populations in the world. Tanzania’s long-term development blueprint, Vision 2050 places particular emphasis on logistics, energy, science and technology, digital transformation, and innovation sectors in which American expertise and investment can play a transformative role.
Recognizing that strategic partnerships are not built on economics alone, Tanzania and the United States have built their relationship on enduring people-to-people ties that have developed and deepened over years. It should be noted that Tanzania was among the first countries in the world to host Peace Corps volunteers in 1961. Today, educational exchanges, sister-city partnerships, business networks, and tourism continue to bring our societies closer together.
Furthermore, Tanzanian and American institutions have long collaborated to improve lives on both sides of the partnership. Through these collaborations, skills have been strengthened, people empowered, impactful research undertaken, diseases addressed and countless opportunities created.
Moreover, American travelers are increasingly discovering Tanzania. The number of U.S. visitors has nearly tripled since 2021, making the United States Tanzania's leading source of tourists from outside Africa. These exchanges foster mutual understanding and create lasting personal and professional connections.
The relationship has also benefited from sustained high-level engagement. In recent years, senior leaders from both countries have exchanged high-level visits, including H.E. President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan’s visit to the United States in 2022 and H.E. former Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Tanzania in 2023. These engagements reflect a shared recognition that Tanzania and the United States have much to gain from closer cooperation.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
At a time when geopolitical competition is intensifying across Africa, partnerships based on mutual respect, shared interests, and long-term investment are more important than ever. It is in this context that Tanzania is actively pursuing partnerships that support economic growth, job creation, innovation, and shared prosperity, and the United States is a natural partner in that endeavor.
For the United States, engagement with Tanzania represents an opportunity to strengthen ties with one of Africa’s most stable, reform-oriented, strategically located, and business-ready nations. For Tanzania, deeper cooperation with the United States can help unlock the investment, technology, expertise, and market access needed to accelerate its development ambitions.
Now is the time for Tanzania and the United States to work together and unlock the immense opportunities that lie before them. Together the two countries can forge a future guided by dialogue, mutual understanding, mutual respect and shared strategic interests that bind them together.
-------------------------
Dr. Elsie Sia Kanza is the current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United States of America and Mexico. Prior to that role, Ambassador Kanza served as Special Advisor to the President of the World Economic Forum, and, before that, Head of Africa and Member of Executive Committee for 10 years championing growth and development in Africa leveraging public private collaboration. In 2015, She was awarded a Doctorate in Business Administration (honoris causa) by the University of Strathclyde for the transformative impact achieved in Africa.
