By: Daily news

Lake Tanganyika, Africa's deepest and the world's longest freshwater lake, is undergoing a significant transformation, shifting from a historic waterway to a modern trade corridor. With substantial investments in port infrastructure and new shipbuilding initiatives, Tanzania is positioning the lake as a crucial logistics gateway for landlocked neighbors like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, and Zambia.

The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) has invested over 100 billion Tanzanian shillings in upgrading 19 ports across the Kigoma, Katavi, and Rukwa regions. A landmark development is a new shipyard at Karema Port, established through a partnership with China’s Gold Voyage Logistics and ZIJIN Mining Group. Construction began in April 2025 on four 2,000-tonne cargo vessels, the first of which is 90% complete. These ships are set to revolutionize bulk cargo transport, particularly for minerals like lithium, copper, and gold from the DRC’s Manono area. The minerals will move across the lake to Kigoma, then via rail to Tanzanian ports for export.

Modernization efforts are already yielding results: ship calls grew from 425 in 2020/21 to 551 in 2024/25, while cargo throughput rose from 277,634 to 397,897 tonnes in the same period. The DRC accounts for 71.8% of this cargo, underscoring the corridor's strategic importance. TPA Director General Plasduce Mbossa emphasizes this is a shared regional vision, with cooperation extending to modernizing the DRC’s Kalemie Port for seamless operations.

Beyond boosting trade, the upgrades lower transport costs, speed up supply chains, enhance security, curb illicit trafficking, and strengthen regional integration within the EAC and SADC. As Tanzania advances its ambition to become East Africa's logistics hub, the revitalization of Lake Tanganyika stands as a central pillar of that strategy, steering the region toward a new era of prosperity anchored in infrastructure and cooperation.