Building new links with important trading partners is a key for governments in opening up new trade markets, creating jobs, and the overall economic growth.
During the Tanzania-Ghana Tourism, Investment and Trade Forum in Accra last Saturday, Tanzania High Commissioner to Abuja, with oversight responsibility to Ghana, Benson Alfred Bana, announced that a new route was in the works that would link Ghana and Tanzania and potentially ease movement of people, goods, services between the two nations.
The forum attended both physically and virtually by key stakeholders in the tourism and trade industries in Ghana and Tanzania, sought — among others — to deepen the Ghana-Tanzania bilateral relations dating back to the 1960s, and also to promote economic cooperation between the two countries in the areas of tourism, foreign capital investment, and trade.
Tanzania and Ghana are rapidly expanding and important aviation market and the agreement signed allow airlines to develop new services and air routes.
The agreement opens all destinations in Tanzania and Ghana for codeshare flights through domestic code share arrangements, even as Ghana inches closer to launching a national carrier after 12 years.
According to the IMF, Tanzania is among the biggest economies on the continent with a GDP of $62 billion.
The country reached an important milestone in July 2020 when it graduated from poor to lower-middle-income status, a feat attained five years ahead of the projected time.
Since the onset of the pandemic and the economic realities brought by Russia’s military action in Ukraine, Tanzania’s economic wardrobe has remained positive, with Dr. Bana noting that Tanzania’s inflation rate — estimated at 3.9 percent in 2021 — had been projected to 3.4 percent in 2022.
“The country has enjoyed unprecedented political stability and peaceful transfer of power since 1961. Tanzania is a relatively peaceful country with almost zero incidences of insecurity that provides a safe and secured environment for capital invested in the country,” he noted.
He also highlighted some of the tourist destinations and natural resources of the country including Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Victoria, wildlife, and the beaches of Zanzibar.
