The Tanzania National Airline, Air Tanzania, will begin direct flight from Dar es Salaam to Accra before the end of the year.

To this end, the Executive Director of Air Tanzania Corporation Limited has visited the country to have discussions with key stakeholders.

The Tanzania High Commissioner to Abuja, with oversight responsibility to Ghana, Dr Benson Alfred Bana, said the new route would ease the movement of people, goods, services and capital between Ghana and Tanzania.

Dr Bana announced this at the Tanzania-Ghana Tourism, Investment and Trade Forum in Accra last Saturday.

The forum, which was 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.

Dr Bana, quoting a recent research report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Tanzania was among the largest economies in Africa with a GDP of $62 billion.

He said 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.

Dr Bana added that notwithstanding the global adverse effects of COVID-19 and the economic problems brought by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tanzania’s economic wardrobe remained positive, pointing out that its inflation rate — estimated at 3.9 per cent in 2021 — had been projected to 3.4 per cent 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 incidence of insecurity that provides a safe and secured environment for capitals invested in the country,” he noted.

He highlighted some of the tourist destinations and natural resources of the country to include Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Victoria, wildlife and the beaches of Zanzibar.

Ghana-Tanzania trade
The President of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Clement Osei-Amoako, described Ghana as an excellent destination to do business.

He pointed out that available trade statistics for 2021 from the International Trade Centre showed that Ghana’s exports to Tanzania amounted to US$2.8 million, while imports from Tanzania amounted to US$3 million.