President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Saturday that Tanzania will look to revive a $10 billion stalled Bagamoyo port project on the eastern coast of the country.
“I would like to share with you the good news that we have started negotiations on reviving the whole Bagamoyo port project,” Hassan said during a gathering with the private sector in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania signed a deal in 2013 with China Merchants Holdings International to construct the port and a special economic zone (SEZ) in coordination with Oman’s State General Reserve Fund.
The project aimed to transform the country into an investment and trade and transport hub to rival its neighbours.
However, the government of the late president John Magufuli had complained that the conditions proposed by the investors, which included Oman’s State General Reserve Fund, were commercially impracticable.
The late President John Magufuli had complained about “exploitative and awkward” terms attached to the deal. Among the conditions Magufuli disliked were China’s request that from Tanga in the north to Mtwara in the south, no other port be built in Tanzania.
The investors also wanted a 33-year guaranty including a lease of 99 years. They insisted that once the Bagamoyo port became operational, they should be no questions on who invests in the ports.
Magufuli also decried the mismanagement of the $50-million compensation for those displaced by the new port project, stating that it did not reach the beneficiaries in Bagamoyo but was diverted to benefit few connected cabals.
The Bagamoyo port project, which broke ground four years ago, would have been the largest port in East Africa and was a crucial component in China’s $900-billion Belt and Road Initiative.
Tanzania’s decision to opt for donor funding for mega projects has attracted a $292 million fund approval, by the World Bank for infrastructure projects in Zanzibar.
The funds are in addition to $4.9 billion the World Bank had already approved to help revitalise mega projects in the country.