Tanzania minister: Foreigners come as investors, then become petty traders

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Tanzania says it imposed a ban on foreigners from doing certain businesses to stop a continual abuse of investment rules under which they had entered the country.

Trade and Industry Minister Selemani Jafo, speaking for the first time since announcing the ban three weeks ago, said Tanzania was not targeting a specific nationality but protecting locals from unfair competition in petty trade.“These foreign traders entered Tanzania as potential investors but later changed into petty traders,” Jafo said on Friday in Dar es Salaam. “This ban doesn’t prohibit foreigners from doing business in Tanzania, but opens more doors to both foreigners and locals to work together in business partnership. Foreign traders would make transactions in specified markets.”This was the first time Tanzania was clearing the air on the controversial policy on non-citizens from owning and operating small-scale businesses. But it is also sticking to the guns over the decision that has been criticised by some rights groups and neighbours Kenya, who argue it violates the East African Community protocol on free movement of goods, labour and people.

Jafo said while opening a three-day Kariakoo Festival in Dar es Salaam that the government will protect local traders from unfair competition with foreigners.

Tanzania had published Notice No. GN 487A on July 28, 2025 banning 15 business activities for foreign nationals. They included salons, small-scale mining, tour guiding and mobile phone repair shops.

Kariakoo market in Dar es Salaam has about 6,000 traders -- small and large-scale -- who remit about Tsh700 billion ($2.7 million) per year through taxes, official data shows.

In 2024, Kariakoo traders went on strike protesting an aggressive taxation regime and “unfair competition from Chinese traders.” And this year, locals petitioned President Samia Suluhu Hassan to protect them from unfair competition from non-citizens.

The minister said that foreign traders have been buying crops directly from farmers, denying Tanzanian citizens their business rights.

The Government Notice also prohibits on-farm crop buying, curio shops and establishing radio and TV operations.