What Business Opportunities does Tanzania Have for Indian Investors With an abundance of natural resources like natural gas, oil and a lavish flora and fauna, the country has startling opportunities to offer to investors

A business fades away if not expanded. If you have goals to achieve in your business, boundaries should not matter. At a time when business enthusiasts are digging out opportunities even from the stones, where do geographical boundaries stand?

What do you think when we say Tanzania — jungles, wildlife, and an East African country? We're sure none of you would think about having an operational business there.

Reason? Simply put, we are still not aware of Tanzania's growing economy, leapfrogging the country to the status of one of the fastest developing nations in the African continent.

Tanzania's Natural Resource Pockets

It's an established fact that the world is a small place. What's interesting is how business opportunities are erupting out of the largest natural resource pockets of unexplored continents like Africa. With an abundance of natural resources like natural gas, oil and a lavish flora and fauna, Tanzania has startling opportunities to offer to investors, especially in terms of agriculture, FMCG, gas and energy sectors. "We would want you all to invest into agriculture, natural gas and mining. Tanzania is aggressively focusing on these sectors. This will develop good business collaborations and understanding between the two countries," said Charles Mwijage, Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment.

It may surprise many to know that Indians have well-established businesses in Tanzania, ranging from eateries to agricultural products and energy-based businesses. Here's a list of five major sectors to invest in Tanzania and scale it up.

Real Estate

The Tanzanian Government has taken note of the need for a concrete infrastructure before a concrete investment plan in other businesses. People in construction business have reasons to cheer as the country is focusing on the construction of 10,000 houses for public servants — here's where investment scopes lie.

With an estimated cost of Tshs. 632,000,000,000 for four phases, approximately 2,500 houses will be constructed in each phase.

Mining

Business enthusiasts are smart only when they are proactive at cashing in on opportunities the moment they arise. In a land endowed with extensive mineral deposits of high economic value, opportunities keep coming. African mines being the highest producer of gold in the world (Johannesburg being the place with maximum number of mines in the continent), it has huge deposits of iron, silver, copper, nickel and platinum, along with gemstones like diamonds, tanzanite, ruby, garnet and emerald.

There is also no dearth of energy fuel, coal and uranium, the major sources of energy fuels, being found in abundance here.

Projects like re-development of Buhemba Gold Mine Project and Quarry Aggregate Project are being pitched to investors from other countries to generate employment opportunities for Tanzanians and providing benefits through corporate social responsibilities programmes.

Food-processing

Almost 10% of the Tanzanian fruits and vegetables produced are processed. There is a room — a spacious one so to say — for large-scale production of a range of tropical as well as temperate fruits. Processing and canning facilities are on high-demand in the areas with surplus fruit produce. Similarly, there is a huge demand for cashew nut processing units with the nut produce increasing to an average of 120,000 tons annually.

Sectors like Agro-processing industries are giving investors duty-free and quota-free access to East African markets along with a 10-year tax holiday.

According to an investor in the FMCG market in Tanzania, "There is a lot of scope for eateries and for FMCG market as a whole. People love to taste the delicacies of other countries. Tanzania is just growing, so investing there with so many tax- free privileges and quotas is really good for a business to grow."

Oil and Gas Supply and Services

A well-planned business with infrastructure and manpower and also the required machinery can't operate if it lacks the fuel to run them. That's where Tanzania's energy sector comes into play. Every country's economy runs on two things — smart minds and smart usage of energy.

With several businesses being run in the country by foreign nationals, there is a need to quench the fuel supply. Tanzania has been intermittently exploring opportunities to use hydrocarbons over a period of sixty years. To date, a total of 68 exploration wells have been drilled out of which are shallow-shore discoveries and 17 are deep-sea discoveries. The latest natural gas reserves of Tanzania are 49 trillion cubic feet (TCF) as of now.

With an investment of US $ 2.2 billion, Tanzania is among the top five investment destinations for India. The Tanzanian Government has shown enough optimism in co-operation in the sectors like fisheries; industrial development, including industrial research and development and SMEs development; information, communication and technology; labour and employment; culture, arts and sports.

However, the brightest areas of investment are co-operations like gems and jewelry, energy (Hydro/Thermal/Gas/Diesel/solar power plants), oil and natural gas, mining, transport, agriculture and water supply projects.

Staying in an alien land and working could be quite a task sometimes. Hence, India has requested Tanzania to provide long-term visas for reputed companies that could facilitate trade growth. "Long-term visas for reputed companies that have multi-entry facilities will be helpful in promoting investments and business tie-ups between the two nations," the ministry said.

Loopholes

As Tanzania is setting its foot in the arena of booming economies of the world, it definitely has a lot to gain, but not much to lose. Nevertheless, developing economies around the world have seen increased crimes rates and a rebellion by the people of that country. An Indian businessman in Tanzania told Entrepreneur India about the adverse security arrangements in the country. "The nation and its resources are attractive but the government must also take care of the security of foreign nationals like us. Corruption and bribery add to the problem," said the entrepreneur.