Country Background

Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1985 with the first democratic elections held in the country.  The country has since then been practicing multi-party democracy with elections being held every five years.

Tanzania has frontier to the following countries

North : Kenya and Uganda
West: Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo
South: Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique

Climate

Tanzania has a tropical type of climate. In the highlands, temperatures range between 10⁰c and 20⁰c.during cold and hot seasons respectively. The rest of the country has temperatures never falling lower than 20⁰c. The hottest period spreads between November and February (25⁰c - 31⁰c) while the coldest period occurs between May and August (15⁰c - 20⁰c).

Two rainfall regimes exist over Tanzania. One is unimodal (December - April) and the other is bimodal (October -December and March - May). The former is experienced in southern, south-west, central and western parts of the country, and the later is found to the east, north and northern coast.

Population

Estimated at 42 million people in 2010. 

Economy - overview

 The economy depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for more than one-fourth of GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs 80% of the work force. Topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops to about 4% of the land area. Government is giving much emphasis to agriculture development through the Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First) initiative.

Industry traditionally features the processing of agricultural commodities, cement and  consumer goods.

The country is endowed with a variety of minerals which include, inter alia, gold, coal, diamonds, uranium and iron ore.  Natural gas is in abundance and is being used to generate electricity for the country.  Generally, mining is still at its infancy in Tanzania with a lot of exploration taking place around the country.

Tanzania has some of the best unexploited national parks boasting among them the world famous Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area.  Tourism is booming and attracting a lot of investors.

There is also emphasis on energy and infrastructure development which has not been given much attention in the past.  The Government is encouraging Private Public Partnership in the implementation of some of the projects in these areas.