Category: The Citizen

Tanzania has just closed a chapter that I spent years watching from the inside, one policy shift at a time. Under the Foreign Exchange (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, the Bank of Tanzania has opened Treasury bills and Treasury bonds to non-resident investors of any nationality, not only those from the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, or the Tanzanian diaspora, who previously held exclusive access to this market.

More than a decade ago, I led a benchmarking exercise on Tanzania’s compliance with the EAC Treaty and the Protocol on the Establishment of the East African Common Market, with a specific focus on the free movement of capital.

What that exercise found was a capital market that did not honour its regional obligations. Tanzania then added the EAC and SADC residency requirements which gave the appearance of regional openness, while the underlying market remained, in practice, tightly held by Tanzanians and a narrow band of regional and diaspora participants.

Watching that market widen, cautiously and in stages, over the following ten years has been one of the more instructive lessons I have had in how capital account liberalisation unfolds in this region. It rarely arrives as a single dramatic reform. It arrives as a sequence of smaller ones that eventually cross a threshold.

This amendment crosses that threshold. Non resident investors, regardless of nationality, now access Treasury bills and Treasury bonds through approved Central Depository Participants and the Bank of Tanzania’s Central Depository System, the same infrastructure used by domestic banks, brokers and diaspora investors before them.

The reform follows the central bank’s earlier move to market determined bond coupon rates, adopted at the end of 2024 to improve price discovery, a precondition that matters more than it might first appear.

Foreign capital tends to avoid markets where pricing is administered rather than discovered. Tanzania removed that obstacle before opening the door, not after.

The timing speaks to a broader fiscal reality. Domestic debt currently makes up close to 30 percent of Tanzania’s total debt stock of just over $50 billion, and until now, retail and foreign holders together accounted for a modest share of that.

As Tanzania moves into the implementation phase of Vision 2050, and as budget financing becomes less reliant on concessional development assistance and more dependent on a mix of domestic revenue, market borrowing and blended finance, a shallow, closed government securities market becomes a genuine constraint.

Widening the investor base is not merely a technical fix to a funding gap. It is a structural requirement for a country that intends to finance its own long term development ambitions rather than borrow them from donors.

There is a currency stability dimension too, and it deserves equal weight. A broader base of non resident holders of shilling denominated government debt creates another channel through which foreign currency enters the economy, easing pressure on the exchange rate and deepening liquidity in the domestic bond market. Analysts have been quick to frame the reform in these terms, and they are right to. However, it is worth stating plainly that opening a market and deepening a market are not the same achievement. The regulation creates access. It does not, on its own, create demand.

Whether this reform delivers the capital inflows Tanzania is counting on will depend on execution that has, in other reform episodes, lagged the ambition of the policy itself: how efficiently Central Depository Participants onboard new foreign clients, how predictably the tax treatment of non resident bondholders is applied, and how consistently regulatory intent is honoured at the operational level once the initial announcement fades from the headlines.

Tanzania has, to its credit, been more disciplined on this front in recent years than it was a decade ago.

However, sophisticated institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and development finance institutions among them, will watch implementation as closely as they watched the announcement itself.

For investors evaluating East African fixed income exposure for the first time, or reconsidering it, this reform deserves attention beyond the headline. It is not the end point of Tanzania’s capital account liberalisation, and it should not be read as one.

It is, however, the clearest signal yet that Tanzania intends to finance its next phase of growth on more diversified terms, and that the market it is offering access to is no longer the closed one I first worked on a decade ago.

Amne Suedi is the Managing Director of Shikana Investment and Advisory, Honorary Consul of Switzerland in Zanzibar, and Chair of the Switzerland-Tanzania Chamber of Commerce. Views expressed are strictly Amne Suedi’s only.

. Coca-Cola Kwanza has received the United Nations Business Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Award 2026 from the Global Compact Network Tanzania (GCNT) in recognition of its contribution to advancing SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.

The award recognises a project implemented under the Coca-Cola system’s Africa Water Stewardship Initiative, which represents a nearly $25 million investment to help address critical water-related challenges in local communities across 20 African countries by 2030.

In Tanzania, the initiative involves a $1.94 million investment focused on restoring the Ruvu Basin, a vital water source for Dar es Salaam residents and a lifeline for communities, farms and businesses across eastern Tanzania. The project is a joint effort involving the Coca-Cola system in Tanzania, Global Water Challenge, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Wami-Ruvu Basin Water Board.

It aims to deliver tangible impact through initiatives including tree planting and the adoption of more climate-resilient livelihood practices, benefiting at least 2,000 farmers.

The award was presented by GCNT during the third edition of the Business SDG Awards Gala on June 26, 2026.

GCNT recognised the project for demonstrating a commitment to embedding the Sustainable Development Goals into core business operations and contributing to Tanzania’s 2030 Agenda.

‘We are immensely proud of this recognition, which demonstrates the impact of collective action,’ said David Chait, general manager of Coca-Cola Kwanza, a company in the Coca-Cola Beverages Africa group.

‘Water is essential to people and ecosystems and is the main ingredient in most of our products. We aim to promote water stewardship within our business and beyond, to increase water-use efficiency and treat and return safe water to communities.

‘This project in Tanzania is a strong example of our deep-rooted commitment to Africa and our belief that we are most successful when we work hand in hand with our partners and dedicated implementing organisations.’

The award-winning project focuses on improving water replenishment through nature-based solutions, restoring catchment areas and supporting more sustainable water management in the Ngerengere catchment of the Ruvu sub-basin.

The recognition highlights the importance of partnerships in addressing complex water challenges and the role of collaborative action in building a more sustainable and water-secure future for Tanzania.

Tanzania’s pageantry scene has ushered in a new group of beauty queens, with Jihan Dimack crowned Miss Grand Tanzania 2026 and six other contestants selected to represent the country at international competitions.

The grand finale, held on Saturday, marked the culmination of a competition that began in April with nationwide auditions and brought together aspiring models and beauty queens from different parts of the country.

Dimack, representing Mwanza, emerged as the overall winner, making a notable return to the national pageantry spotlight nearly a decade after her first major title.

Her victory adds another chapter to an already established pageant career. Dimack was crowned Miss Universe Tanzania in 2016 and went on to represent Tanzania at the Miss Universe competition in the Philippines in January 2017. She had earlier finished as second runner-up at Miss Tanzania 2014.

She has also built a career in fashion, working as a professional model and appearing in advertising campaigns and fashion publications. Earlier in her career, she worked as an administration officer while pursuing modelling.

Her return to competitive pageantry comes at a time when Tanzania’s beauty industry is experiencing renewed momentum, with national competitions increasingly serving as gateways to major international pageants.

The Miss Grand Tanzania 2026 competition officially began with auditions on April 25 in Dar es Salaam. More than 50 aspiring contestants took part in the initial screening, with 20 finalists eventually selected to proceed to the national competition.

The auditions assessed contestants on areas including confidence, stage presence, personality and communication.

Dimack succeeds Beatrice Alex Akyoo, who won the Miss Grand Tanzania title in August 2025 after representing Dar es Salaam.

Beyond the main crown, the Miss Grand Tanzania finale also served as a platform for selecting Tanzania’s representatives for several international beauty competitions.

Prisca Lyimo, who represented Arusha, was crowned Miss Cosmo Tanzania 2026. She succeeds Jesca Michael Micca, Tanzania’s representative at Miss Cosmo 2025.

Celine Edson, representing Shinyanga, received the Miss Earth Tanzania 2026 title. She succeeds Amina Abdulkadri Jigge, who represented Tanzania at Miss Earth 2025.

Agape Anthony, who represented Kigoma, was named Miss International Tanzania 2026, taking over from Efrazia Makene, Tanzania’s representative at Miss International 2025.

The remaining titles went to Rose Uisso, who was crowned Miss Global Tanzania 2026; Zulfa Yazid, who received the Miss Africa Golden Tanzania 2026 title; and Namala Patrick, who was crowned Miss Tourism Tanzania 2026.

The expanded list of titles reflects the direction taken by the current Miss Grand Tanzania franchise, which has increasingly used its national competition to identify contestants for several international pageant platforms rather than focusing solely on the Miss Grand International crown.

The model was already evident in the 2025 edition, when contestants were selected to represent Tanzania at competitions including Miss Earth, Miss Cosmo, Miss International and other international pageants.

The development comes as Tanzania’s wider pageant calendar continues to expand.

The Miss Grand Tanzania franchise returned to national competition in 2024 after several years without a standalone national contest. The organisation had previously held national editions in 2017 and 2018 before a break in the franchise. It returned under new management in 2024, with Nazimizye Mdolo leading the current organisation.

The 2025 and 2026 editions have since helped restore Miss Grand Tanzania as one of the country’s prominent platforms for beauty, fashion and international representation.

The growth also mirrors increased activity across Tanzania’s pageantry sector, with competitions such as Miss World Tanzania and Miss Grand Tanzania forming part of a busy national calendar.

The Citizen reported in April that both competitions were scheduled for major events in Dar es Salaam, reflecting the growing importance of pageantry within the country’s fashion and entertainment industries.

The Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority (COPRA) has won two awards at the 2026 Nanenane agricultural exhibitions, emerging third in two separate categories at the national and Lake Zone events.

At the national Nanenane exhibition in Dodoma, COPRA secured third place in the category for government agencies, authorities and commissions providing services and engaging in production.

The authority also finished third in the Lake Zone exhibition in the category for management and regulatory institutions. The awards recognise COPRA’s participation in the eight-day exhibitions, where it engaged farmers, traders and other stakeholders on issues including production, quality, standards, trade and markets for cereals and other produce.

During the exhibitions, COPRA conducted seminars on regulations governing avocado production, contract farming, and quality control and standards.

Stakeholders also used Cocoa Day to discuss opportunities in domestic markets, value addition and the role of young people in the cocoa business, including opportunities in chocolate, cocoa butter and cosmetics production.

COPRA further organised an Agribusiness Influencers Day, bringing content creators together with its officials and experts to discuss production, regulations, trade formalisation, market systems and the COPRA Management Information System (MIS).

The engagement was intended to equip content creators with accurate information to improve public understanding of the cereals and other produce sector.

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The authority also facilitated practical sessions on the use and value addition of pulses, including food-tasting activities and demonstrations of different recipes.

Beyond domestic engagement, COPRA held discussions with regional stakeholders, including officials from South Sudan, on agricultural trade, regional markets and digital systems.

The authority said the recognition would encourage it to continue improving services, strengthening markets, formalising trade and enhancing the competitiveness of Tanzanian agricultural produce in domestic, regional and international markets.

COPRA said the efforts were also in line with the implementation of Tanzania’s National Development Vision 2050.

‘Know the Market; Increase Productivity to Implement Vision 2050.’

. The government and development partners have launched a plan to construct 1,000 footbridges within five years to reduce deaths and injuries caused by dangerous river crossings.

Data shared on Thursday, August 13, 2026, by Helvetas Tanzania’s Safe Footbridges Construction project manager, Ms Rosemary Kayanda, show that between 14 and 15 people die every year while crossing the Ruvu River, and a similar number are injured.

Ms Kayanda was speaking at the closing of a 15-day training programme, hinting that the initiative had begun with six model bridges in Morogoro Rural, Mvomero, Malinyi and Ulanga districts. ‘We are looking at 1,000 bridges within five years. We are starting with six bridges in Tanzania, expecting to build as many bridges as possible,’ she said.

Funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the three-year project will start in Morogoro before expanding to other regions.

Ms Kayanda said Helvetas had identified communities facing serious challenges crossing rivers during rainy seasons, limiting access to healthcare, education and markets.

‘Citizens have been unable to reach healthcare services, pupils fail to attend school during rains, and farmers cannot transport their produce to the market,’ she said.

She said some pupils had gone for up to two months without attending classes when rivers swelled, while patients failed to reach health facilities and farmers left produce to rot, noting that crocodiles in some rivers further increase the danger.

Tununguo, where the Ruvu River crossing is located, and Misengele Matuli in Mvomero District, where the Mbamba River is found, are among affected areas.

Ms Kayanda said the bridge technology was cost-effective, allowing several structures to be built simultaneously.

Each bridge costs between Sh50 million and Sh70 million and can last 50 to 100 years with proper maintenance.

‘These are long-lasting, affordable, and safer bridges for the community,’ she said.

Helvetas is working with Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (Tarura), local councils, and other stakeholders to expand the programme.

Tanzania could draw on Helvetas’ experience in Nepal and Ethiopia, where thousands of bridges have been built.

The Morogoro training involved 15 engineers and technical experts from Tarura, the Prime Minister’s Office-Regional Administration and Local Government, Morogoro and Mvomero councils, and Helvetas.

It comprised 12 classroom days and three days of fieldwork.

Participants covered site selection, surveying, design, foundations, cables, towers, costing, BoQ preparation and quality control.

They also prepared detailed project reports for bridges in Morogoro and Mvomero.

The reports will guide planning, approvals, procurement and implementation.

Morogoro Regional Administrative Secretary, Dr Mussa Ali Mussa, called for closer institutional cooperation, urging councils to use local resources and expertise to increase bridge construction.

‘We need to collaborate genuinely and practically, not just through words,’ he said.

Tarura consulting engineer, Mr Pharles Ngeeleja, said the agency manages about 144,149.18 kilometres of roads, most of which are unpaved, underscoring the scale of rural connectivity challenges.

‘Our country is still poor, and poverty is sometimes perpetuated by poor road infrastructure,’ he said.

For communities separated by swollen rivers, a footbridge means more than a crossing; it can be a child’s route to school, a patient’s path to hospital, and a farmer’s route to markets.

. The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is turning to cooperatives, insurance agents and community-based structures to expand health insurance coverage among farmers and other informal-sector workers.

The approach is part of the government’s efforts to extend health insurance coverage under the Universal Health Insurance programme to people who earn their livelihoods outside formal employment.

NHIF manager for marketing and customer services Angela Mziray said the Fund was using structures already trusted by farmers and other informal workers to take insurance information and registration services closer to communities. ‘Cooperatives bring together large numbers of farmers, creating an established platform through which health insurance information and registration services can be taken closer to communities,’ she said.

Insurance agents are also being used to provide registration and information services, particularly to people who cannot easily access NHIF offices. Ms Mziray urged Tanzanians to enrol in health insurance before falling ill, saying it could protect families from having to use savings or sell assets to meet unexpected medical expenses.

‘Illness comes without warning. You may be healthy today, but tomorrow you will need expensive medical treatment.

That is why we urge people to join health insurance early so they can build financial protection for themselves and their families,’ she said.

She said the Fund was also conducting public education campaigns across the country to increase awareness of the benefits of health insurance and encourage people to avoid paying medical bills entirely from their own pockets.

NHIF members can access healthcare through government, private and faith-based health facilities registered with the Fund, she said.

‘Illness can affect anyone at any time. Having health insurance means that when the need arises, a family can seek medical care without having to bear the full cost of treatment from its own resources,’ she said.

The focus on farmers follows a directive by Health Minister Mohamed Mchengerwa on February 2, 2026, identifying farmers among the strategic groups to be reached under the Universal Health Insurance programme.

Other groups include livestock keepers, artists, motorcycle taxi operators and small-scale miners.

Mr Mchengerwa said the government would reach such groups in the areas where they live and work, using communication approaches and language suited to their circumstances to increase enrolment.

The government has also begun implementing the Universal Health Insurance programme for households unable to afford contributions, with Sh48.8 billion allocated to support healthcare access for specified groups.

As of the latest figures, 172,297 households had been reached and enrolled, with 463,228 beneficiaries beginning to access medical services at registered health facilities.

Tanzania has just closed a chapter that I spent years watching from the inside, one policy shift at a time. Under the Foreign Exchange (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, the Bank of Tanzania has opened Treasury bills and Treasury bonds to non-resident investors of any nationality, not only those from the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, or the Tanzanian diaspora, who previously held exclusive access to this market.

More than a decade ago, I led a benchmarking exercise on Tanzania’s compliance with the EAC Treaty and the Protocol on the Establishment of the East African Common Market, with a specific focus on the free movement of capital.

What that exercise found was a capital market that did not honour its regional obligations. Tanzania then added the EAC and SADC residency requirements which gave the appearance of regional openness, while the underlying market remained, in practice, tightly held by Tanzanians and a narrow band of regional and diaspora participants.

Watching that market widen, cautiously and in stages, over the following ten years has been one of the more instructive lessons I have had in how capital account liberalisation unfolds in this region. It rarely arrives as a single dramatic reform. It arrives as a sequence of smaller ones that eventually cross a threshold.

This amendment crosses that threshold. Non resident investors, regardless of nationality, now access Treasury bills and Treasury bonds through approved Central Depository Participants and the Bank of Tanzania’s Central Depository System, the same infrastructure used by domestic banks, brokers and diaspora investors before them.

The reform follows the central bank’s earlier move to market determined bond coupon rates, adopted at the end of 2024 to improve price discovery, a precondition that matters more than it might first appear.

Foreign capital tends to avoid markets where pricing is administered rather than discovered. Tanzania removed that obstacle before opening the door, not after.

The timing speaks to a broader fiscal reality. Domestic debt currently makes up close to 30 percent of Tanzania’s total debt stock of just over $50 billion, and until now, retail and foreign holders together accounted for a modest share of that.

As Tanzania moves into the implementation phase of Vision 2050, and as budget financing becomes less reliant on concessional development assistance and more dependent on a mix of domestic revenue, market borrowing and blended finance, a shallow, closed government securities market becomes a genuine constraint.

Widening the investor base is not merely a technical fix to a funding gap. It is a structural requirement for a country that intends to finance its own long term development ambitions rather than borrow them from donors.

There is a currency stability dimension too, and it deserves equal weight. A broader base of non resident holders of shilling denominated government debt creates another channel through which foreign currency enters the economy, easing pressure on the exchange rate and deepening liquidity in the domestic bond market. Analysts have been quick to frame the reform in these terms, and they are right to. However, it is worth stating plainly that opening a market and deepening a market are not the same achievement. The regulation creates access. It does not, on its own, create demand.

Whether this reform delivers the capital inflows Tanzania is counting on will depend on execution that has, in other reform episodes, lagged the ambition of the policy itself: how efficiently Central Depository Participants onboard new foreign clients, how predictably the tax treatment of non resident bondholders is applied, and how consistently regulatory intent is honoured at the operational level once the initial announcement fades from the headlines.

Tanzania has, to its credit, been more disciplined on this front in recent years than it was a decade ago.

However, sophisticated institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and development finance institutions among them, will watch implementation as closely as they watched the announcement itself.

For investors evaluating East African fixed income exposure for the first time, or reconsidering it, this reform deserves attention beyond the headline. It is not the end point of Tanzania’s capital account liberalisation, and it should not be read as one.

It is, however, the clearest signal yet that Tanzania intends to finance its next phase of growth on more diversified terms, and that the market it is offering access to is no longer the closed one I first worked on a decade ago.

Amne Suedi is the Managing Director of Shikana Investment and Advisory, Honorary Consul of Switzerland in Zanzibar, and Chair of the Switzerland-Tanzania Chamber of Commerce. Views expressed are strictly Amne Suedi’s only.

. The Rotary Club of Bahari Dar es Salaam will host its 16th Annual Charity Golf Tournament on Saturday, August 15, 2026, at the Gymkhana Club, bringing together golfers, corporate leaders, Rotarians and partners to raise support for community development initiatives.

Held under Rotary’s theme, ‘Each One, Engage for Impact,’ the annual tournament has become a key platform for combining sport, fellowship and service, while mobilising resources for projects in health, education, environmental conservation, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

Rotary Club of Bahari President Irene Bizere said reaching the 16th edition was an important milestone, noting that the tournament had evolved beyond a sporting event into a platform for corporate partnerships and community service.

‘Over the years, this tournament has grown beyond golf to become a platform where friendship, corporate partnership and a shared commitment to service come together,’ Ms Bizere said.

She thanked sponsors, golfers and partners for their continued support, saying their contributions had enabled the club to make a tangible difference in communities.

The club’s recent projects include a Microforest Project implemented in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation during the 2025/26 Rotary year. The initiative engaged 80 youth volunteers and directly benefited more than 300 students and staff.

The club also planted 1,000 trees around the University of Dar es Salaam campus, provided free cervical cancer screening to at least 150 women and delivered an incinerator to Toangoma Primary School to improve sanitation and waste management.

Several projects are also currently underway, including a Neonatal Global Grant Project in partnership with SolidarMed to support neonatal wards with equipment and training.

Other initiatives include renovating primary school toilets, installing an incinerator at Mtakuja Secondary School to support WASH and girls’ hygiene, and providing 450 desks to improve learning conditions for about 3,030 pupils, including 34 blind pupils at Toangoma Primary School.

Healthcare remains another major area of focus for the club.

In July, the Rotary Club of Bahari, working with Rotaract Tanzania and the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), conducted a blood donation drive in Masaki, Dar es Salaam.

The campaign registered 77 donors and mobilised 41 volunteers, resulting in the collection of 44 units of blood, which could potentially save more than 130 lives.

Service Project Director Gladyness Mkumbo said the results demonstrated the impact that could be achieved through collective action and partnerships.

‘Forty-four units is a strong start, but our ambition is to go further,’ Ms Mkumbo said, adding that partnerships built around initiatives such as the golf tournament could help mobilise more people and resources for community projects.

The tournament has attracted support from a range of corporate partners, including Toyota, Ecobank, TotalEnergies, ASAS, GSM, Minet Insurance, SBC (T) Ltd, Allmol Freight Services, Neelkanth Group, Lodhia Group, Tanfoam, Abbas Autos, V One Ahead Insurance, Blueberry Travel and NCBA.

The Rotary Club of Bahari has invited golfers, companies, organisations and friends of Rotary to participate in the tournament and support its efforts to create lasting positive change in communities.

The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar (RGZ) has assured private sector investors seeking opportunities in the archipelago of a conducive investment environment, emphasising that economic growth cannot be driven by the government alone.

The government said its primary role is to formulate policies, laws and regulations that create certainty, comfort and ease for investors, enabling the private sector to play a leading role in economic development.

These remarks were made on Thursday, August 13, 2026, by Zanzibar’s Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Juma Malik Akil, during a meeting on private sector participation in the implementation of the Zanzibar Development Plan (ZADEP II) 2026/31.

Held at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Unguja’s Urban West Region, the meeting was organised by the Zanzibar Planning Commission.

Minister Malik stated that there has been a perception that when the government formulates short- and long-term plans, it excludes the private sector, and they want to eliminate that notion because it is incorrect.

‘A country’s economy is built by the private sector; the government has one major task: to formulate policies, laws, and procedures that make it easier for them to invest, and to create regulations that give them comfort in executing the projects they wish to invest in,’ he said.

He noted that the old mindset of expecting the government to handle everything was what created hesitation and fear around investing.

Consequently, Dr Malik stated that because the government is ready to collaborate with the private sector, it has resolved to amend laws that cause delays and create bottlenecks in enabling them to conduct business or invest.

The minister added that the aim of these measures is to provide stability and peace of mind.

He reassured investors that past obstacles no longer exist, noting that even the registration process for investors has been streamlined to prevent long delays and make operations easier.

The Zanzibar Planning Commission executive secretary, Dr Josephine Kimaro, stated that ZADEP II is a medium-term development framework building on where ZADEP I (2021-2026) concluded, forming part of the implementation of the Zanzibar Development Vision 2050.

She explained that the main objective of the plan is to boost the economy and individual incomes, develop human capital through skills and employment, and ensure the economy built is sustainable, resilient, and inclusive of ordinary citizens.

‘The private sector is ready to participate in raising citizen incomes to ensure that development reaches ordinary people and enhances individual livelihoods,’ she said.

She emphasised that the private sector is a key stakeholder, given that the Commission bears the primary responsibility of planning, overseeing, and monitoring implementation to ensure tangible results.

A stakeholder from the Africa Pension Fund (APeF), Mr Mfaume Kimario, advised the RGZ to list and register companies and projects executed in Zanzibar on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and in collective investment schemes.

He noted that such a step would offer Tanzanians and Zanzibaris a full opportunity to participate by purchasing shares and becoming owners or investors in these strategic government projects.

m. American R and B star Trey Songz has arrived in Tanzania promising Dar es Salaam music lovers a performance to remember, while also using his maiden visit to the country to take part in a humanitarian engagement.

The concert will take place at the TTCL Grounds, popularly known as Posta Grounds, in Kijitonyama, Dar es Salaam. Unlike events that charge individual entrance fees at the gate, fans will access the venue through table bookings, with tables available at different prices depending on the package. There will be no individual entrance fee for fans at the gate.

The Grammy-nominated singer touched down at Julius Nyerere International Airport shortly after midnight yesterday ahead of the Imbeju Sauti Moja Concert, which will be held tomorrow, August 14, at TTCL Grounds, popularly known as Posta Grounds, in Dar es Salaam.

Unlike conventional concerts, organisers have said there will be no entrance fee charged at the gate. Instead, fans will access the event by purchasing tables offered at different prices, depending on the package.

Trey Songz will headline an international line-up of artistes at the concert, which is expected to attract thousands of music fans eager to watch the American R and B star perform live in Tanzania for the first time.

As part of his Tanzania itinerary, Trey is also expected to visit the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), adding a social and humanitarian dimension to his maiden trip.

The visit will give the artiste an opportunity to learn more about the institute’s work and interact with people connected to its services before turning his attention to the concert stage.

His arrival has already generated excitement among local music fans, with the singer expected to combine his international R and B appeal with a major Tanzanian welcome during his stay in Dar es Salaam.

Speaking shortly after arriving in Dar es Salaam, Trey said he was excited to be in Tanzania and meet his fans. ‘It’s overwhelming but I’m happy and excited to be here. I’m happy to come and perform. I’m very happy,’ he said.

Beyond the concert, the singer said he was interested in experiencing Tanzania, its culture and its people, rather than relying on assumptions about the country.

His arrival was given an added touch of Bongo Flava glamour when Tanzanian superstar Diamond Platnumz showed up at the airport to welcome him.

The two artistes are not strangers, having previously met in the United States, where they also spent time together in a studio. Their reunion in Dar es Salaam quickly became a talking point among music fans.

Trey’s visit comes as Dar es Salaam prepares for the Imbeju Sauti Moja Concert, part of the wider CRDB International Marathon 2026 weekend, which brings together entertainment, sport and social investment.

He will share the stage with Nigerian Afrobeats singer BNXN, formerly known as Buju, South African DJ and producer Kabza De Small, as well as Tanzanian stars Mbosso and G Nako.

For Trey, the show will mark his Tanzanian performance debut and an opportunity to connect directly with an audience that has followed his music over the years.

His catalogue includes fan favourites such as Bottoms Up, Slow Motion, Say Aah, Na Na, Can’t Help but Wait and Heart Attack.