Tanzania: A General Business Law Overview
Tanzania's Economic Activity, Trends and Recent Developments
Reform agenda and investment climate
The United Republic of Tanzania has continued, throughout 2025 and into 2026, to pursue a reform program aimed at improving the investment climate while maintaining the protection of national and local interests. The Government has placed Vision 2050 at the centre of its long-term development agenda. Vision 2050 seeks, among other things, to move Tanzania towards a high-income, industrialised economy and to position the country among Africa’s leading destinations for investment and business activity.
The Blueprint for Regulatory Reform has also continued, with its second phase launched in April 2025 to address licensing, regulatory duplication and non-productive charges. The emphasis, as reflected in the 2026/27 Budget Speech of the Minister for Planning and Investment, is not only on large investors, but also on micro, small and medium enterprises, youth, women and the informal sector.
Economic outlook and market activity
The economic outlook remains generally positive. According to the Bank of Tanzania's January 2026 Monetary Policy Report, growth in Mainland Tanzania was projected to remain strong at 6% in the first quarter of 2026, whilst Zanzibar was projected to grow by 7.2%. Inflation also remained within the central bank's target range of 3-5%. Foreign exchange reserves stood at more than USD 6.3 billion, sufficient to cover about 4.9 months of imports.
Growth continues to be supported by agriculture, mining and quarrying, construction, financial services, tourism, transport, and improved power availability. At the same time, the Government has recognised that future growth will require greater formalisation, better taxpayer service and more predictable regulation.
The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) also recorded a strong year in 2025. According to the DSE 2025 Market Performance Report, total market capitalisation closed the year at approximately TZS 23.995 trillion, or about USD 9.42 billion, representing an increase of 34.3% compared with 2024. Equity turnover also increased by about 190%. This performance was driven largely by the banking sector, mobile trading, retail investor participation and continuing regulatory reforms, and points to the growing role of capital markets in Tanzania's wider investment landscape.
Institutional and regulatory reform
The most visible institutional development has been the establishment of the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA), which became operational on 1 July 2025 under the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Act No. 6 of 2025. TISEZA merges the former Tanzania Investment Centre and the Export Processing Zones Authority and is intended to act as a single point of contact for promotion, facilitation, and the regulation of investment in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and non-SEZs.
Through its One-Stop Facilitation Centre and integrated electronic system, TISEZA is expected to reduce the administrative burden previously faced by investors dealing with several agencies. Registration with TISEZA is now required for investors, whether or not they are applying for fiscal incentives. This however will depend on how TISEZA will work in practice to facilitate investment and ultimately convert the available investment opportunities into development outcome trajectories.
On the tax side, a further significant development was the submission, on 18 March 2026, of the Report of the Presidential Commission on Tax Reforms, chaired by Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, to the President. The report proposes 284 reforms, including a national tax policy, a principal taxation law, greater use of digital systems, a one-year tax grace period for start-ups, a 90-day time limit for the determination of tax objections, and the establishment of a dedicated Tax Division of the High Court. It is to be seen how fast these recommendations will be implemented.
If implemented as proposed, these reforms should improve predictability, which is key for increased investments, and address long-standing concerns that Tanzania's tax system has been fragmented, enforcement-led and concentrated on a narrow formal taxpayer base. The proposed renaming of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) as the Tanzania Revenue Service also reflects the stated intention to move towards a more taxpayer-oriented culture, which is already being promoted by the current TRA Commissioner General, Yusuf Mwenda.
Sector developments: mining, infrastructure and energy
Tanzania's mining sector has continued to develop encouragingly with the Nyanzaga Gold Project soon to come online. The Mahenge Graphite Project remains one of the country’s important critical-minerals projects, and the nickel-copper processing plant in Dodoma has been reported as moving towards production, in line with the Government's policy of increasing domestic value addition. These are in addition to Kabanga Nickel Project (nickel, copper and cobalt) in North West Tanzania and Panda Hill Project (niobium), which are also earmarked to augment domestic revenue from mining operations, amongst others.
Recent amendments to the Mining (Local Content) Regulations, published in September 2025, have tightened requirements for non-indigenous Tanzanian companies supplying goods or services to the mining sector, including joint venture requirements with Indigenous Tanzanian companies (ITCs). These reforms support local participation and through joint venture arrangements, aim at creating capacity for local suppliers. Besides, the amendment introduced areas/sectors that are exclusively reserved for ITCs, implying that the joint venture arrangement with non-ITCs does not apply to these exempted/exclusive sectors. In this regard, despite the good intention of the amendments, investors will need to plan carefully to remain compliant.
Transport and energy infrastructure have also seen important developments. Official port data reported that cargo throughput at the Dar es Salaam Port rose to 27.7 million tonnes in the 2024/2025 financial year, representing a 15%increase. Container-vessel turnaround time reduced from around 30 days to around six days, including anchorage waiting time, although of recent this might have slightly increased. These gains have been attributed largely to infrastructure upgrades, digital systems, and public-private partnerships involving new players who have recently taken over operations.
In the energy sector, negotiations for the proposed USD 42 billion Tanzania Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project, led by Equinor and Shell together with other partners, are at an advanced stage, expected to greatly contribute to domestic revenue collections in the medium to long term.
Legal and regulatory developments
From a legal standpoint, several developments over the past year merit attention. The Court of Appeal has reversed the earlier position that permitted non-citizens to inherit land in Tanzania under a Will, with ownership by transmission now limited to citizens. The Business Licensing (Prohibition of Business Activities for Non-Citizens) Order, 2025, has reserved specified business activities for Tanzanian citizens. Besides, in the mining sector, the Mining (Local Content) Regulations list services/sectors that exclusively reserved for Tanzanians and ITCs.
The Foreign Exchange Use Regulations, 2025 require prices and domestic payments for goods and services to be in Tanzanian shillings, subject to limited exceptions. The Court of Appeal has also restored appeal rights in tax cases where there is an omission by the TRA in making a decision. Separately, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights has ordered Tanzania to remove the mandatory death penalty from its criminal law, a wider constitutional development whose domestic implementation will require monitoring.
Outlook
Overall, Tanzania in 2026 presents a jurisdiction in which the direction of reform is clear and in which the institutional framework for doing business is becoming more coherent. The gap between legislation and consistent day-to-day implementation remains the area requiring the closest attention from clients and advisers. It is in this gap that careful structuring and proper local advice remain essential.
Tanzania’s trajectory remains positive, particularly for investors who approach the market with a clear understanding of the regulatory environment, local participation requirements and the importance of careful structuring.