Tanzania-India trade hits $9 billion as strategic partnership deepens

Tanzania · TRADE

Tanzania-India trade has surged to $9.02 billion in the 2025–26 financial year, cementing India’s position as one of East Africa’s most consequential economic partners and marking a rapid climb from $6.4 billion just three years earlier.

A trade corridor hitting new highs

Two-way commerce between Dar es Salaam and New Delhi reached $9.02 billion in the financial year to March 2026, according to India’s Press Information Bureau. That figure represents a steady climb from $8.64 billion in 2024–25 and $7.9 billion in 2023–24, when India recorded a 22 percent rise from a year earlier.

India’s own trade data for 2024–25 breaks the total down into Indian exports to Tanzania of $4.79 billion and Indian imports from Tanzania of $3.89 billion. The relationship has moved Tanzania up the ranks to become India’s second-largest trade partner in Africa.

The numbers tell a story of deepening commercial integration that goes well beyond raw commodities. Tanzanian shipments to India now include cashews, pulses, avocados, gold and coal, while Indian exports span mineral fuels, medicaments, motorcycles, sugar and semi-finished iron products.

Investment flows that create jobs

Trade figures capture only part of the story. Indian investment in Tanzania now stands at roughly $4.08 billion to $4.2 billion, spread across 750 to 778 projects that have generated an estimated 65,000 to 67,000 jobs, according to Tanzanian and Indian reporting.

Indian firms are visible in sectors that matter for economic upgrading: pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, agro-processing, information and communications technology, and infrastructure. This is not an extractive-only footprint but one that aligns with Tanzania’s ambition to become a logistics and industrial hub on the Indian Ocean corridor.

Tanzanian officials have paired the trade push with domestic reforms, including removing 378 nuisance taxes and expanding special economic zones to attract foreign capital. Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade Exaud Kigahe told a business forum in July 2025 that both countries were targeting $10 billion in bilateral trade and prioritising sectors such as information and communications technology, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, automotive manufacturing and infrastructure.

The strategic partnership behind the numbers

The commercial surge sits inside a formal diplomatic upgrade. President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi elevated the relationship to a Strategic Partnership in October 2023, covering maritime security, defence, development, trade and investment.

That matters geopolitically because India is strengthening its influence in the western Indian Ocean at a moment when China, the Gulf states and Europe are all competing for access to African markets, minerals and ports. For Tanzania, Indian engagement is attractive because it is comparatively commercial, diaspora-linked and manufacturing-oriented.

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has repeatedly pointed to the country’s duty-free access for 98 percent of tariff lines from 33 African countries as a mechanism that helps pull more Tanzanian exports into the Indian market. The policy has contributed to a trade relationship that both sides describe as increasingly balanced.

Tanzania as a gateway state

Tanzania sits on the Indian Ocean corridor linking East Africa to the wider maritime economy, a geography that makes it a natural gateway for Indian capital seeking access to regional markets. The country is positioning itself as a logistics and industrial hub, and Indian firms are visible in the sectors that will determine whether that ambition succeeds.

The trade basket is broadening beyond raw materials into pharmaceuticals, machinery, textiles, agro-processing, information and communications technology, and industrial inputs. That shift matters because it suggests the relationship is moving up the value chain, from simple exchange of goods toward deeper industrial integration.

India’s broader Africa trade has been described by Indian and multilateral sources as having grown to around $98 billion in 2022–23 or $103 billion in 2023, depending on the source and methodology. Within that continental picture, Tanzania stands out as a priority partner, as explored in our pillar Africa: The New Scramble.

The Global South playbook in action

India is using its Africa policy as part of a broader Global South strategy that combines trade, concessional finance, industrial supply chains and diplomacy. Tanzania, meanwhile, is using the Indian relationship to diversify away from dependence on a narrower set of partners.

The key strategic backdrop is the race for African alignment in a multipolar era. India wants markets and partnerships; Tanzania wants capital, industrial jobs and bargaining power; both want insulation from excessive dependence on any single external power.

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was among the ministers emphasising deeper investment and startup links in discussions around the partnership. The presence of a large and commercially active Indian diaspora in East Africa adds a layer of people-to-people connectivity that pure state-to-state deals often lack.

What to watch as the $10 billion target nears

Both governments have made clear that $10 billion is the next milestone. Deputy Minister Kigahe’s July 2025 remarks signalled that Tanzania is prioritising sectors where Indian firms already have competitive strength, creating a plausible path to hitting that number.

The trajectory will depend on whether Tanzania can sustain its domestic reform momentum while Indian companies continue to see the market as a manufacturing and logistics play rather than merely a destination for goods. The broadening of the trade basket suggests the foundations are being laid.

For investors and diplomats watching East Africa, the Tanzania-India corridor is becoming one of the region’s most instructive case studies in how middle-power partnerships can reshape trade maps without the fanfare that accompanies great-power infrastructure deals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• pib.gov.in
• africa-business-intelligence.com
• mea.gov.in
• ippmedia.com

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