Tanzania Trade Profile: A decade of deficit

Much ado has been made about the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The trading agreement which came into effect in 2019 - is meant to create larger markets for citizens and entrepreneurs in Africa’s 55 states by reducing barriers to trade and so forth and so on. We’ve heard most of the rhetoric around it by now and me repeating it here would be unfair to 85% of readers. The 15% who have no idea what it is, should refer to our numerous articles on the trade agreement here. 

Over a series of articles, we will now be detailing the nature of trade in Southern African countries trying to establish the gaps that the oft-proposed trading agreement could fill once countries more actively enforce the pact. The second country we will look at in this regard is Tanzania.

Read Zambia’s trade profile: The Copper Curtain

Economic profile

Over the last decade, Tanzania’s economic output has steadily improved posting a peak of 79.15bn in 2023 which is a national best for the only East-African nation among the SADC states.