President Samia Hassan poses for a photo with President John Dramani Mahama
Tanzania and Ghana have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation to better harness their natural resources to accelerate economic growth, expand value addition, and create jobs for their youthful populations.
The commitment was reached on Monday, March 2, 2026, during bilateral talks in Arusha between Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her Ghanaian counterpart, President John Dramani Mahama.
President Mahama arrived in Tanzania on Monday, March 2, 2026, to officiate the opening of the legal year of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The two presidents underscored the importance of African nations retaining greater value from their natural resources through industrialisation and responsible resource governance, rather than exporting raw materials with limited domestic benefit.
President Hassan highlighted Tanzania’s steady macroeconomic performance, noting economic growth of six percent and inflation maintained within single digits.
She reaffirmed her government’s focus on industrial development, value addition in agriculture and mining, human capital investment, and climate resilience as key pillars of economic transformation.
“Our priority is to ensure that our natural wealth translates into tangible benefits for our people,” said President Hassan.
“Sustainable development must be anchored in strong institutions and strategic investment,” she added.
For his part, President Mahama outlined Ghana’s recent reforms in the gold and cocoa sectors, designed to enhance accountability, increase export transparency, and expand domestic processing capacity.
He revealed that strengthened controls in the gold export regime had enabled Ghana to increase shipments from 63 tonnes to 104 tonnes within nine months.
Ghana is also intensifying efforts to boost local value addition in cocoa processing, “A move aimed at increasing revenues and generating employment across the agricultural value chain.”
The two leaders identified priority areas for enhanced cooperation, including mining and natural resource governance, agricultural value chains, digitalisation and fintech, cybersecurity, and improved air connectivity between West and East Africa to facilitate trade and investment flows.
Both presidents reaffirmed that the historic ties between Tanzania and Ghana, shaped by the Pan-African vision of founding leaders Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, continue to inspire a shared commitment to economic self-reliance and continental solidarity.
