Esra Tekin
19 July 2026•Update: 19 July 2026
Egypt expressed interest Saturday in reclaiming agricultural land and establishing logistics zones in Tanzania, as well as reaching understandings on water issues among Nile Basin countries.
The remarks came during a news conference by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on the sidelines of a day visit to the Tanzanian capital, according to an official Egyptian source.
During her meeting with the Egyptian president, Hassan praised the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project.
Sisi said the project represented a positive model of cooperation aimed at achieving development and prosperity, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.
On Dec. 12, 2018, Egypt signed a contract in Tanzania to build a dam for water storage and electricity generation through a 2,115-megawatt hydropower plant.
In 2022, then-Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry attended the launch of the filling of the dam’s reservoir.
Following an expanded round of talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of two memorandums of understanding in the fields of transport, electricity and renewable energy.
“I held fruitful and constructive bilateral talks with the president of Tanzania, reflecting our shared determination to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries in various fields,” Sisi said at the news conference, according to the Egyptian statement.
“We discussed opportunities to launch an agricultural land reclamation project in Tanzania with the aim of achieving food security for both countries and meeting national needs for essential and strategic crops. We also discussed expanding the project in successive stages and eventually moving toward exports," he added.
Sisi also said Egypt was ready to participate in the expansion and development of the Port of Dar es Salaam, stressing the need to incorporate the project into a broader plan for regional logistics corridors and connect it with Tanzania’s neighboring countries.
“We also discussed a proposal to establish a shipping line linking the ports of Safaga in Egypt and Dar es Salaam, as well as a multimodal corridor between Cairo and Dar es Salaam through a number of joint development projects,” he said. “In this regard, I affirmed my aspiration to strengthen Tanzania’s positive and constructive role, based on encouraging mutual understanding and a spirit of cooperation among the brotherly countries that share the river in the Nile Basin.”
Tanzania is one of the 11 Nile Basin countries, along with Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.
In October 2024, Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry urged Nile Basin countries that had signed the Entebbe Agreement between 1999 and 2024 to reconsider their positions and return to discussions on cooperation, amid concerns about its possible effect on Egypt’s annual share of Nile water, estimated at 55 billion cubic meters and considered the country’s main water source.
Separately, the presidents of Egypt and Tanzania attended the closing session of a meeting of businesspeople from both countries, with more than 35 Egyptian business representatives and 120 Tanzanian counterparts present, according to a separate statement from the Egyptian presidency.
Sisi referred to “fruitful discussions and practical results in the trade and investment sectors.”
He said two memoranda of understanding had been signed by ministers from both sides and that the two countries had agreed to move forward with joint projects in agriculture and livestock.
“We also agreed on projects to develop ports, maritime and rail links, logistics zones, roads and infrastructure, which will help facilitate trade and the transportation of goods,” he added.
Sisi previously visited Dar es Salaam in August 2017, in what was described at the time as the first visit by an Egyptian president since 1968.
Trade between Egypt and Tanzania reached $12.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, while Egyptian exports to Tanzania rose by 3.2%, according to previously released Egyptian statistics.
