Mining, M&A, and the New Capital Flows: How Big Deals Are Redrawing Tanzania’s Investment Map

Tanzania’s investment landscape is changing. Fast and deep.

Between April and June 2025, the country registered US$3.22 billion in total investment capital. But beneath that headline number lies a structural shift: the rise of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic consolidations, which together accounted for US$1.659 billion, or more than half of all recorded capital in the quarter.

At the center of it all is a single, transformative deal, an agriculture-sector acquisition valued at US$1.65 billion. The scale of that transaction not only elevated Tanzania’s quarterly totals but also signaled a new appetite among regional and global investors to secure control over key value chains, from agri-commodities to mineral resources.

A Quarter Dominated by Big Moves

According to the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA), fourteen mergers and acquisitions were finalized between April and June, with the agriculture megadeal accounting for 99 percent of M&A capital volume.

The remaining transactions spanned manufacturing, mining, and logistics, as foreign investors deepened their footprints through joint ventures and buyouts rather than purely greenfield projects.

This is a new trend for Tanzania. For years, FDI was driven by new factory and construction starts. Now, investors are pursuing scale and control, consolidating existing operations to extract efficiencies, integrate upstream supply, and lock in export flows.

Mining Steps Back Into the Spotlight

Alongside the M&A surge, Tanzania’s mining sector is being redefined through state-led structuring and value-addition initiatives.

In Shinyanga, the Buzwagi Special Economic Zone (1,333 hectares), developed on the former gold-mine site, is being positioned as the country’s first mining value-addition hub, offering serviced plots for mineral processing, smelting, and refining plants.

The site already has core infrastructure in place: grid power, water connections, and road access. By transforming a legacy mining operation into an SEZ, Tanzania is signaling a broader policy evolution, from resource extraction to resource beneficiation.

The state-owned mining company STAMICO is also repositioning its role through joint ventures and direct project participation. A new partnership with Changube Copper Mining Company Limited is expected to modernize copper production and enhance local refining capacity.

“The goal is to ensure that no mineral leaves Tanzania without value addition,” a senior official at the Ministry of Minerals told Bloomberg Africa. “We’re moving from exporting ore to exporting finished metal.”

Strategic Capital, Strategic Control

The rise of large-ticket acquisitions and mining reforms marks a strategic turning point. Instead of chasing volume, investors are targeting influence, securing control over inputs, logistics corridors, and processing rights.

This is particularly evident in agriculture. The US$1.65 billion megadeal consolidates several high-value agribusinesses under a single foreign holding entity, giving it leverage over Tanzania’s export supply chains in cashew, maize, and horticulture.

In parallel, smaller acquisitions in manufacturing and logistics reflect a focus on vertical integration, controlling production from raw material sourcing to final export.

Analysts say this wave of consolidation could accelerate Tanzania’s industrial base if well-regulated, or entrench foreign dominance if poorly managed.

Policy and Regulation Catch Up

The government’s response has been to tighten oversight through TISEZA, which now oversees both domestic and foreign investments, including acquisitions.

Under new guidelines, all large-scale deals are screened for:

• Beneficial ownership disclosure
• Local content compliance
• Employment and technology-transfer commitments

This follows Tanzania’s broader push to ensure 30 percent Tanzanian ownership in major projects and minimum domestic participation thresholds.

Such provisions aim to ensure that large transactions create real domestic spillovers, from skills to supply-chain development.

The Value-Addition Imperative

Mining, manufacturing, and agriculture now converge around a single policy idea: local value addition.

For mining, that means refining gold, copper, and nickel domestically.

For agriculture, it means turning raw crops into processed exports through agro-industrial SEZs such as Nala and Kwala.

The government’s argument is straightforward, Tanzania can no longer afford to be a supplier of raw commodities while importing processed goods made from its own resources.

Economists agree that value-addition industries could increase export earnings by 30–40 percent within five years if the SEZ rollout remains on schedule.

Risks Beneath the Surface

Despite the upbeat momentum, several challenges remain:

1. Transparency of Acquisitions
2. Large M&A transactions routed through offshore jurisdictions make it difficult to trace ownership and tax liabilities.
3. Infrastructure Gaps
4. The success of SEZs like Buzwagi and Bagamoyo depends on continuous public investment in power, transport, and water.
5. Local Capital Constraints
6. Domestic firms lack financing muscle to compete in acquisitions, which may limit Tanzanian participation in strategic sectors.
7. Regulatory Bandwidth
8. As deal volume increases, TISEZA and sectoral regulators must expand due-diligence capacity to avoid project delays.

Investor Takeaway

For global investors, the trend signals a more sophisticated Tanzanian market. The country is transitioning from aid dependency to asset acquisition, from raw exports to industrial integration.

M&A-driven growth opens three classes of opportunity:

• Equity Partnerships — minority positions in Tanzanian agribusinesses or mining refineries.
• Infrastructure Finance — power, logistics, and industrial service providers for new SEZs.
• Advisory and Legal Services — transaction structuring, due diligence, and compliance consulting.

The regulatory shift through TISEZA, merging the Tanzania Investment Centre and Export Processing Zones Authority, means investors now have a single window for both new and acquisition-based projects.

Outlook

Tanzania’s next growth phase won’t just be built, it will be bought, merged, and restructured.

The balance between strategic foreign capital and domestic ownership will determine whether the M&A boom becomes a bridge to industrial maturity or a return to extractive dependence.

What’s clear is that Tanzania is no longer a peripheral player in East African investment flows. With rising capital intensity, policy stability, and an expanding SEZ network, it’s fast becoming the region’s dealmaking frontier.

Or as one Nairobi-based investment banker put it, “Kenya lists, Rwanda reforms, but Tanzania is where the real acquisitions are happening.”