- In the race for economic competitiveness aimed at attracting investment and promoting tarde, East African countries are engaged in cutthroat competition to construct and upgrade infrastructure mega-projects.
- Currently, Tanzania leads in terms of value of projects and the number that broke ground by June 2020. President Samia Suluhu’s government is implementing the National Five-Year Development Plan 2016/17 – 2020/2021, which aims at nurturing industrialization for economic transformation and human development.
The following are the top ongoing mega projects.
By Eric Obwogi
Bagamoyo Port US $11bn
Billed as one of the most ambitious megaprojects ever undertaken in Eastern Africa, the Bagamoyo Port (US$ 11Bn) is a collaborative effort between Tanzania, China and Oman. In addition, 190 industries are being built on a 1,700-hectare special economic zone adjacent to the port. Designed to handle 20 million containers annually once completed in 2045, the Bagamoyo Port will be Africa’s largest port.
Tanzania SGR project
After Ethiopia and Kenya, Tanzania becomes the third East African country to embark on railway infrastructure modernization. The government is building a new electric railway line using domestic resources from Dar es salaam – Morogoro – Dodoma about 700 Km.
Covering a distance of about 2,707 Km, with three branches from Dar es salaam – Tabora-Kigoma (1,251 kms); Tabora – Mwanza (379 kms) and Kaliua – Mpanda (210 kms), the railway line will ease transportation of cargo and passengers along the central corridor. Further, the project is expected to reduce time and freight for cargo destined to neighbouring countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and DRC. As one of the mega infrastructure projects in Tanzania, it is estimated to cost Tsh14 trillion (US$6.5 billion).
Once complete, the SGR Rail project will provide a safe and reliable means for efficiently transporting people and cargo to and from the Dar es Salaam Port.
Expansion of the Dar es salaam Port
The ongoing stiff competition between Kenya’s Mombasa Port and Dar es Laam moves a notch higher as Tanzania seeks to deepen Dar’s 7 berths’ from the current 8 meters to 15 meters to allow the Port to receive larger vessels able to carry up to 19,000 containers – the port will be able to handle ships more than 304 meters from the current 204 meters in legth – enabling the Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) to increase the container through output to 28 million tons a year from around 20 million containers currently.
New Likong’o-Mchinga Liquefied Natural Gas plant US $30bn
At US$30 Bn, the LNG project worth US $30bn will be the most valuable project in the region once completed, and is expected to contribute about 7% towards Tanzania’s economy. It will definitely be a game changer in the region’s energy sector.
New international airport in Dodoma
Dodoma is Tanzania’s administrative capital, and will be host to a new international airport which will be built in Msalato, 12 km from Dodoma. It will include a passenger terminal, runway and related infrastructure.
The new US$ 273M airport project which will take approximately four years for construction is designed to handle 1 million passengers annually and will have a runway of just over 2km in length. The funding package comprises a US $198.6m loan from the AfDB, US $23.52m from the African Development Fund, and US $50m in co-financing from China’s Africa Growing Together Fund, which the AfDB manages.
