Tanzania has unveiled a $12.9 billion energy investment pipeline at the Powering Africa Summit in Washington DC, covering 36 projects across power generation, transmission, natural gas, and clean cooking energy. Deputy Energy Minister Salome Makamba presented the package on Friday, calling for strategic partners across each subsector. The projects are slated for implementation over the next five years.
The generation portfolio consists of 13 projects requiring $2.77 billion, expected to add 1,421 megawatts to the national grid. On the transmission side, 23 projects worth $1.21 billion include the construction of 1,350 kilometres of new transmission lines and associated substations. Tanzania holds over 57 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, and Makamba stressed the importance of attracting investment into exploration, processing, and utilisation for power generation and industrial applications.
Clean cooking energy rounds out the package. The government is targeting 75 percent adoption by 2030 through the distribution of improved cookstoves, liquefied gas, and other low-emission technologies.
Makamba was accompanied at the summit by Tanzania’s US Ambassador Else Sia Kanza, along with officials from TANESCO, the Rural Energy Agency, and energy regulator PURA. Separately, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation is executing multi-billion-shilling gas production projects at Mnazi Bay in Mtwara Region, where it is drilling three new wells at a cost of $235 million. Two of the wells target increased production from existing fields; a third, Kasa-1, is designed to open a new gas field.
The Washington presentation came one week after Tanzania and Kenya made headlines with bilateral investment announcements, and follows a series of engagements with Chinese and Indonesian investors in recent months. Tanzania is running a broad capital attraction campaign across multiple geographies simultaneously, anchored in energy and infrastructure.
Tanzania’s electricity access rate has improved substantially over the past decade but remains below 50 percent in rural areas. The 1,421MW targeted under the new generation projects would represent a meaningful addition to a national grid that currently sits at roughly 3,900MW installed capacity. The Rukwa Region, for example, is only now connecting to the national grid via a 400kV line from Iringa, expected to be complete by May 2026.
Bigger Picture: Tanzania’s $12.9 billion ask is ambitious and the timeline is tight. The country’s track record on private sector energy investment has been mixed: the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station took years longer than planned and cost significantly more than budgeted. But the fundamentals are improving. The economy is growing at 5 to 6 percent annually, gas reserves are substantial, and the government has made consistent noises about investor-friendly policy. The Powering Africa Summit is the right venue for this pitch. The real test is whether Tanzania can move from roadshow to financial close on even a fraction of these 36 projects within the stated five-year window.
Source: Daily News Tanzania
