By Correspondent Joseph Mahumi, Mbeya
Mbeya and the wider Southern Highlands have the land, natural resources and strategic location to become a much bigger engine of Tanzania’s economy. What is still missing, Finance Minister Ambassador Khamis Mussa Omar says, is turning that potential into higher productivity, more processing and stronger industrial activity.
Speaking during a working visit to Mbeya, Ambassador Omar said the Southern Highlands account for roughly 20 per cent of Tanzania’s land area, yet their contribution to national output does not fully reflect the scale of the region’s economic opportunities.
He said the gap points to considerable room for growth in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and other productive sectors.
“There is still a huge opportunity to increase our contribution to GDP in line with the land we have. It is not because we lack opportunities,” Ambassador Omar said.
For the Minister, one of the biggest opportunities lies beyond simply producing crops. Tanzania needs to capture more value from what it grows by processing agricultural commodities locally rather than exporting them in raw or semi-processed form.
“Our emphasis must be on the value chain. We can grow, harvest and sell crops, but we need to occupy a much larger part of the value chain by ensuring processing takes place here in Tanzania,” he said.
That shift, he argued, would create jobs, raise incomes for farmers and businesses, increase government revenues and give Tanzania a larger share of the value generated from its own resources.
The opportunity is particularly significant in the Southern Highlands, where Mbeya and neighbouring regions are major producers of commercial crops including tea, coffee and cocoa.
From farms to factories
Mbeya Urban MP Patrick Mwalunenge said the region could substantially increase its economic contribution by strengthening agriculture, manufacturing and trade.
He urged the Government to improve the infrastructure needed to connect production with markets, including dry ports and industrial parks.
Mbeya’s geographical position, he said, gives it an opportunity to become a regional trading and production hub serving the Southern Highlands as well as neighbouring countries.
“I emphasise the importance of strengthening trade and industrial infrastructure, including dry ports and industrial parks, to make Mbeya a centre for trade and production in the Southern Highlands and neighbouring countries,” Mr Mwalunenge said.
The strategy would bring together three elements that are often separated: production, processing and markets.
Rather than shipping raw coffee, cocoa or other agricultural commodities out of the region, more of the processing could take place locally, allowing businesses to capture additional value before products reach domestic or international consumers.
Chunya’s gold opportunity
Mining remains another major pillar of Mbeya’s economy, particularly in Chunya, where small-scale miners contribute significantly to gold production.
Ambassador Omar stressed that increased mining activity must go hand in hand with environmental protection and better safeguards for miners and communities living around mining areas.
He said the economic benefits of mining should not come at the expense of public health or the environment.
Reliable electricity has also emerged as a constraint on mining operations in Chunya. Ambassador Omar said the Government would work to improve power infrastructure so that gold mining and processing can operate more efficiently, raising productivity and government revenues.
Lupa-Chunya MP Masache Kasaka said Chunya has an even broader economic base, with gold and tobacco among its most important productive activities.
He said the district’s small-scale miners produce an average of about 400 kilogrammes of gold a month, making Chunya one of the country’s leading small-scale gold-producing areas.
Improving electricity supplies in mining zones, he argued, would help miners increase production while stimulating other economic activities around the sector.
Infrastructure holds the key
Tobacco also offers significant potential, despite being cultivated on a relatively smaller scale than in some other regions, Mr Kasaka said.
He called for improvements in electricity, water and road infrastructure, alongside the timely completion of ongoing development projects.
The wider message from Mbeya is increasingly about connectivity — connecting farmers to processing facilities, miners to reliable power, manufacturers to markets and the region itself to domestic and cross-border trade.
For Tanzania, the challenge now is to turn the Southern Highlands’ natural advantages into a deeper production base. If investment in infrastructure, agro-processing, industrial capacity and reliable energy keeps pace with the region’s resources, Mbeya could move beyond being a major producer of raw commodities to becoming a much more important centre of value creation – and a stronger contributor to Tanzania’s economic growth.
