Investment & TISEZA

TISEZA Eastern Zone: Dar es Salaam, Pwani and the Port SEZs

By CFE. Joseph Magweiga Marwa · Reviewed by Advocate Yona Habiye · Published 2026-09-10 · Last reviewed 2026-09-10 · 18 min read

This page is the zonal operating file for investors who have been pointed at Dar–Pwani and need the named zones, the named desks and the opportunity list without another national brochure. It is not a ZIPA page, not a land-title walkthrough, and not a national TISEZA how-to.

• National statutory file — 2025 Act operating guide
• Land inside a TISEZA park — industrial-plot facilitation
• Zanzibar, not this zone — ZIPA incentives and SEZs
• Fees when a zone licence is the instrument — TISEZA fees 2026

The source in hand is TISEZA’s Eastern Zone briefing (Dar es Salaam and Pwani). Contacts below are copied from that briefing and must be reconfirmed — officers move. Law is stated as at 10 September 2026.

What the zonal office is for

The briefing’s first sentence is the useful one. The Eastern Zone office is responsible for facilitating and promoting investments in Dar es Salaam and Pwani, and for aftercare through the investment lifecycle. Aftercare is the part national pages skip. A certificate issued in Dodoma language still has a factory in Kibaha that needs power, a customs officer and a progress report. That is a zonal job.

The office location printed in the briefing is Ubungo External, inside the BWM SEZ area. That is not TISEZA headquarters at Golden Jubilee Tower on Ohio Street. Do not send a courier to the wrong building.

Three SEZs, three different jobs

BWM SEZ — Ubungo External, Dar es Salaam. The in-city industrial park. The briefing treats it as the already-operating reference, with a dedicated SEZ coordinator. Proximity to the port and to urban labour is the offer. Congestion and plot scarcity are the implied constraints. Confirm live occupancy; do not assume a brochure plot is vacant.

Kwala SEZ — Kibaha, Pwani. The 100-hectare park TISEZA has been positioning as a corridor industrial hub. The Complete Guide to TISEZA, 2026 edition, recorded Kwala among the four SEZs opened in Q4 2025 (with Bagamoyo Eco Maritime City, Nala in Dodoma and Buzwagi in Kahama). Nala and Buzwagi are not Eastern Zone. Do not file a Dodoma or Kahama plot on this zonal desk.

BEMC — Bagamoyo Eco Maritime City, Pwani. The 151-hectare maritime-industrial play in the same Q4 2025 set. Port-adjacent manufacturing, assembly and logistics are the briefing’s job description. It is not a beach-tourism title, even though coastal tourism sits on the zonal opportunity list as a separate line.

All three sit under the SEZ framework and the 2025 Act’s certificate-versus-licence split. A manufacturer who wants the zone incentive stack needs a zone licence, not only a general-scheme certificate. Customs treatment is a TRA problem. See the Act page.

The published opportunity list — read it as a filter

The briefing’s manufacturing list: agro-processing and value addition; pharmaceuticals and medical supplies; construction materials; automobile assembling and spare parts; paper and packaging; rubber; assembly of engines for vehicles, boats, tractors and motorcycles; FMCG; textiles and clothing.

Logistics: port-based services, cold storage and distribution, regional trade hubs serving landlocked neighbours — Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Zambia, Malawi — via Dar port, JNIA, trunk roads and both SGR and metre-gauge rail.

Tourism and real estate: coastal tourism, business parks and mixed-use, hospitality and conference facilities.

That list is a filter, not a permit. Pharmaceuticals still need TMDA. Food processing still needs TBS and, where relevant, TMDA. Vehicle assembly still needs the industrial and standards overlay. Coastal tourism still needs TALA / tourism licensing. A cold store is a TBS, power and, if it holds medicines or meat, a sector-licence problem. TISEZA Eastern Zone will not issue those papers.

Named desks — confirm before you dial

The briefing prints the following officers. Treat the names as a 2026 briefing snapshot. Confirm on tiseza.go.tz before you rely on a direct line.

Submissions of investor services at the Authority are, on the 2025 ISP guideline, to be made by registered ISPs. A zonal conversation does not waive that. See the ISP page.

Build sequence for an Eastern Zone file

1. Pick the park — BWM, Kwala or BEMC — against the actual process (manufacturing, logistics, maritime, tourism). Do not pick a park because a photograph is prettier.
2. Confirm a live plot or shed with the coordinator, then run land diligence. A TISEZA facilitation letter is not a title. Land acquisition still applies.
3. Incorporate and tax-register in the vehicle that will hold the zone licence.
4. File the zone licence on bfportal.tiseza.go.tz, not on a WhatsApp thread with the coordinator.
5. Open TRA customs, power, water and the sector permit in parallel. Aftercare is a zonal function; the instruments are still national.

Professional fees stay on /pricing/. Approvals are not guaranteed.

Why this corridor is a port file before it is a park file

The briefing’s strategic-advantages list is the operating geography, not a slogan: the Port of Dar es Salaam, Julius Nyerere International Airport, trunk roads, and both standard-gauge and metre-gauge rail, serving landlocked neighbours named as Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Zambia and Malawi. A manufacturer who wants to be “in Eastern Zone” without a berth, a cold-store, or an SGR siding is buying congestion. A logistics operator who wants the zone incentive stack without a zone licence is buying a general-scheme certificate that will not carry section 19(2) zone rows.

Read the manufacturing list as a filter against the sector board that will actually licence the plant:

Briefing line	What still sits outside TISEZA	Sister file
Agro-processing and value addition	Crop boards, TBS, TMDA where the product is a food or a medicine, TRA export	Agriculture and trade
Pharmaceuticals and medical supplies	TMDA product and premises	Sector permits, not a zonal email
Construction materials; vehicle and engine assembly	TBS, industrial licensing, CRB if you are also the contractor	Construction
Port logistics; cold storage; regional trade hubs	TPA / port operator access, TBS, power, and — if the store holds meat or medicines — the sector overlay	Customs is TRA
Coastal tourism; hospitality; mixed-use	Tourism licensing, Lands, NEMC	Not a beach title because BEMC is in Bagamoyo

Hectare figures in circulation for this corridor — Kwala about 100 hectares, Bagamoyo Eco Maritime City about 151 hectares — are TISEZA-reported figures from the Q4 2025 bulletin cycle as cited in the Complete Guide. Treat them as reported geography, not as vacant, serviced, titled plots. BWM occupancy is an in-city constraint. Confirm live with the coordinator, then run land diligence. A facilitation letter is not a title.

Aftercare is a zonal job; the instruments are still national

The briefing’s first sentence is the one national pages skip: the Eastern Zone office is responsible for facilitation and promotion in Dar es Salaam and Pwani and for aftercare through the investment lifecycle. Aftercare means the factory in Kibaha still needs power, a customs officer, a bi-annual progress report and a person who will pick up the phone when a bond is queried. That is a zonal desk. It is not a substitute for:

• the zone licence on bfportal.tiseza.go.tz;
• section 15 registration before commencement;
• TRA customs treatment when goods leave the fence;
• a registered ISP on clause 2.7.1 of the 2025 guideline;
• TMDA, TBS, CRB, NEMC or Lands where those mandates bite.

The office location printed in the briefing is Ubungo External, inside the BWM SEZ area. Headquarters in TISEZA materials is Golden Jubilee Tower, Ohio Street. Couriers to the wrong building lose a week. Officers named in the briefing must be reconfirmed — they move. Phone numbers on this page are a 2026 briefing snapshot, not a directory guarantee.

Where Eastern Zone files actually fail

Filing Nala or Buzwagi on this desk. Those parks are other zones. The briefing does not cover them. Do not send a Dodoma or Kahama plot to Ubungo External and expect a licence.

Treating a coordinator WhatsApp as an application. Use the coordinator for aftercare and for confirming whether a shed is actually vacant. The licence and plot instruments still go through published portals and forms. Confirm the live SEZ application checklist.

Buying BEMC as a tourism title. Bagamoyo Eco Maritime City is a maritime-industrial play in the same Q4 2025 set. Coastal tourism is a separate line on the zonal opportunity list. Mixing them is how a hotel model is built on an industrial gazette.

Assuming a zone photograph is a serviced plot. The in-body aerial on this page is orientation. Power, water, internal roads and a derivative right are diligence items. See industrial-plot facilitation.

Skipping the ISP. A zonal conversation does not waive the 2025 guideline. See the ISP page.

Zanzibar is not this zone. Pwani is Mainland. ZIPA, BPRA and ZRA are a different jurisdiction. The ZIPA orientation sits on Investing through ZIPA.

The corridor sequence that still has to happen on national paper

A manufacturer who has picked Kwala still has to incorporate, tax-register, appoint a registered ISP if the live one-stop is applying clause 2.7.1, file the zone licence on the Business Facilitation Portal, and open TRA’s customs conversation before the first bonded input arrives. A logistics operator who has picked BWM still has to prove a real shed, a power connection and a client who will actually put boxes through Dar. A maritime assembler who has picked BEMC still has to diligence phase, plot and whether the gazette matches the slide. None of those steps is a zonal courtesy call.

The Complete Guide’s Q4 2025 bulletin figures — four SEZs and two Dar es Salaam PPP infrastructure projects cited at a combined TZS 182 billion — are national TISEZA reporting. Only Kwala and BEMC in that four-park set sit in this zone, together with BWM. Do not file a Dodoma or Kahama PPP on Ubungo External because a bulletin mentioned “four SEZs.” Confirm live project lists on tiseza.go.tz.

Goods that leave any of these parks for Mainland consumption re-enter TRA’s ordinary territory. That is the Act page’s customs point, applied to this corridor. A cold store that serves landlocked neighbours is an export-and-transit file as much as a warehousing file. Confirm TBS, power and, if the store holds meat or medicines, the sector overlay before you treat a zonal opportunity line as a permit.

Currency of this file

SEZ boundaries, plot availability and zonal officers change. The Q4 2025 hectare figures cited from the Complete Guide (Kwala 100 ha, BEMC 151 ha) are TISEZA-reported figures as of that bulletin cycle. Confirm live. This page will need a restatement when a fourth Eastern Zone park is gazetted or when BWM occupancy is formally closed to new tenants.