By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Tanzania has recorded $1.05 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the third quarter of the year, covering July – September, a figure two times higher than the $524.4 million in the same period last year.
Government sources say within the period under review, China was the leading source of FDIs, pumping in $614 million in new investment capital.
It was followed by Singapore ($138.9 million), Germany ($118.6 million), India ($42.3 million) and Mauritius ($24.8 million).
State-owned Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) disclosed the figures in its quarterly bulletin published last week.
The new FDI figure is a significant improvement to Tanzania’s ambitions to raise its FDI inflows to $15 billion by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030, a quantum leap compared to $2 billion in 2021.
The TIC report described the surge in FDIs since July as “indicative of increased confidence in Tanzania’s economic prospects and potential for investment.”
According to the report, the FDIs boost was offset by a parallel sharp drop in local-sourced investments that caused an overall 14 percent fall in new investment capital from $2.41 billion to $2.06 billion during the period under review.
FDIs accounted for 51 percent of the new investments against 49 percent for domestic investments which registered a first-quarter turnover decline from $1.91 billion in 2022 to $1.01 billion this year.
Almost half ($480.38 million) of the new FDIs went into real estate sector and another $245.58 million was directed to manufacturing projects.
By contrast, domestic investors showed more interest in ventures related to agriculture ($420.25 million), economic infrastructure ($212.52 million) and transportation ($178.32 million).
According to the TIC report, total investments in Tanzania’s manufacturing sector dropped sharply from $2.15 billion in Q1 2022 to $356 million in Q1 2023 while the tourism sector recorded new investments worth $40.64 million compared to $36.34 million in 2022.
Of the 137 new foreign and domestic investment projects approved by TIC during Q1 2023, 49 were fully under foreign ownership, 43 were joint ventures between local and foreign investors, and 45 fully owned by local investors up from 38, 14 and 30 respectively last year.
More than half of the new projects were concentrated in the commercial seaport capital Dar es Salaam and neighbouring coastal region with a combined value of $985.62 million.
On the other hand, the administrative capital Dodoma in central Tanzania drew just $62.21 million worth of investment in new projects.
