Tanzania to host parliamentarians as Dira 2050 moves into implementation

1. More than 500 projects are eventually expected to be tracked through the platform as part of
efforts to strengthen implementation, transparency and accountability under Dira 2050.
The development comes as Tanzania records stronger activity in trade and private-sector
financing.

Goods and services exports reached almost $20 billion in the year to July 2026, an increase of
16.5 percent, according to the latest economic data. Manufactured exports rose 46 percent to
about $2.22 billion, while gold exports increased to $5.67 billion.

Private-sector credit growth reached 31.2 percent in July 2026, providing another indicator of
expanding borrowing and commercial activity.
Infrastructure investment is also reshaping the economic base.

Hon Elibariki Kingu representing Tanzania in New York during IPU higher level political meetings

Tanzania also recently inaugurated the 2,115-megawatt Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant on the
Rufiji River. TANESCO says the project now supplies roughly half of the electricity dispatched to the national grid, while national installed generation capacity has risen to approximately 4,646MW.

Electricity access has increased from 78.4 percent in 2020 to 85.5 percent, while the proportion of citizens connected to electricity has risen from 37.7 percent to 52.1 percent.

The additional generation capacity supports Tanzania’s broader push to expand manufacturing,
mineral processing, agricultural value addition, digital services and other electricity-intensive
industries.

Trade infrastructure is expanding alongside energy capacity.

Dar es Salaam port handled 27.83 million tonnes of cargo between July 2025 and March 2026,
compared with 19.31 million tonnes during the corresponding period a year earlier, an increase
of almost 30 percent.

Tanzania’s ports, railways and road corridors provide access to the Indian Ocean for several
inland economies, including Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of
Congo.

The country’s membership in both the East African Community and the Southern African
Development Community also places it within two major regional economic blocs.

Agriculture remains another important part of the transition. Agricultural exports increased from
$2.1 billion in 2021/22 to $3.73 billion in 2024/25, while national food self-sufficiency reached 130 percent.

Tanzania is seeking to convert higher production into more processing, value addition, exports
and employment, particularly as African economies deepen trade through the African

Continental Free Trade Area.

The IPU Assembly will provide an international forum for many of the governance questions
accompanying those changes.

Its programme includes discussions on empowering communities through inclusion and
opportunity, a workshop on delivering healthy food, parliamentary strategies for advancing the
rights and empowerment of people living with disabilities, and a review of the implementation of previous IPU resolutions.

Tanzania’s Parliament will meanwhile play a central domestic role in Dira 2050 through budget
approval, legislation, representation and oversight of public institutions and development
programmes.

Hon Asha feruzi,Kiza mayeye and Elibariki kingu actively participated in the Instanbul IPU deliberations

The $1 trillion economy remains a long-term strategic forecast. Its achievement will depend on sustained productivity growth, private investment, skills development, infrastructure
performance and the ability to translate public projects into jobs, exports and higher household
incomes.

The Arusha Assembly therefore comes as Tanzania moves from setting long-term ambitions to
measuring their implementation. While the 153rd IPU Assembly will place Tanzania before a
global parliamentary audience for five days, the country’s longer test will be whether its
expanding infrastructure, exports, private-sector activity and development projects translate into
broader economic opportunity over the years ahead.

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