ZNZist Weekly — 04 October 2026

Alia: Welcome to ZNZist Weekly, the Zanzibar News Digest. I am Alia. Badru: And I am Badru. Let us get straight into the first story shaping Zanzibar's direction this week. Alia: Zanzibar has launched a new Digital Transformation Policy, unveiled on Tuesday at the Tech and AI Expo Zanzibar 2026, held at the Golden Tulip Airport Hotel. Daily News reports the policy aims to build a more inclusive, digitally enabled economy. Badru: President Hussein Ali Mwinyi opened the event, and according to Global Publishers, he argued Africa should stop being merely a market for technology made elsewhere. Instead, he said African nations need to build their own capacity to produce technology, nurture talent, and compete in innovation and investment. Alia: The president also said infrastructure alone is not sufficient for a successful digital economy. That is a notable caution, suggesting Zanzibar's ambitions depend on more than cables and towers. Badru: Concretely, the government says it wants to connect one hundred thousand households to reliable internet through fibre to the home within three years, while also strengthening submarine cable links and expanding data center infrastructure. Alia: On artificial intelligence specifically, Mwinyi said the technology could boost productivity in agriculture, health, education, tourism, government services and business. But he stressed that benefits depend on strong infrastructure, reliable data, skilled professionals, accountable oversight, and public trust. Badru: To that end, the government says it is preparing an AI Strategy Framework intended to guide safe and accountable use of the technology while protecting privacy and basic rights. Alia: Zanzibar's technology minister, Mudrik Ramadhan Soraga, said the goal is creating conditions for young people to use technology and innovation to participate fully in the digital economy and build products competitive internationally. Badru: During the expo, the president also witnessed a memorandum of understanding signed between Zanzibar's communications ministry and Huawei Technologies Tanzania, aimed at strengthening cooperation in the technology sector. Alia: Daily News also notes that the policy itself was developed with support from the UNCDF, through the EU funded Tanzania Inclusive Digital Economy Programme, which has been assisting Zanzibar's government since 2023. Badru: UNCDF representative Shigeki Komatsubara framed it simply, saying digital transformation is ultimately about what technology makes possible for people, not the technology itself. Alia: So the real test now will be implementation, whether these infrastructure plans and the coming AI framework translate into the jobs, services and opportunities officials are promising. Alia: Zanzibar's Government of National Unity is back, and according to Daily News, leaders across the political spectrum are now saying the real test is turning that political reconciliation into economic results. Badru: Right, so here's the timeline. CCM and ACT-Wazalendo signed a reconciliation agreement on July ninth. That led to Othman Masoud Othman being sworn in as First Vice President on September twenty second. Daily News reports President Hussein Ali Mwinyi calling this the start of a new phase, not the end of a journey, where leaders should focus on development instead of political disputes. Alia: Mwinyi outlined priorities including economic growth, youth employment, women's empowerment, tourism, the Blue Economy, infrastructure, health, education, water and energy. Othman, who also chairs ACT-Wazalendo, pushed back on the idea that the GNU is about dividing up positions. Daily News quotes him saying it is instead a tool for reconciliation and national unity. Badru: He made a point of citing Singapore as an example of a country that prioritized unity to drive development, and he's repeated that message on the ground. During his first visit to Pemba since taking office, he told a rally in Chake Chake that no country achieves development without building unity first. Alia: There's also accountability built into this. Daily News reports that CCM's Khamis Mbeto Khamis said the Joint Committee for Implementation is expected to submit recommendations within an agreed three month period. Badru: And reaction has come from multiple corners. ACT-Wazalendo's Ismail Jussa Ladhu praised the courage behind the deal but also warned against selfishness among some leaders undermining it. Deputy Secretary General Omar Ali Sheha said the journey toward one unified Zanzibar isn't finished yet. Alia: Even outside party politics, voices like National Council of Elders Secretary Janet Menda De Fusi called the return of the GNU a new beginning and a source of hope for Zanzibaris. Badru: Young people are watching closely too. Zanzibar Youth Council chairman Mohammed Amani Juma told Daily News this isn't the moment to focus on party loyalty, but to work hard together on development instead. Alia: So the political chapter has opened. Whether it becomes an economic one depends on whether this cooperation actually shows up in investment, jobs and public services in the months ahead. Alia: Let's head to the northwest coast of Zanzibar, to the village of Kendwa, where a new resort project called Liyongo is being described as a different kind of tourism development. This comes from a sponsored feature published by boutiquehotelnews.com, so we're treating the details as the developers' own account of their plans. Badru: According to that account, the project was founded by Christopher Nash, who first arrived in Kendwa in 2021, alongside his brother-in-law Victor Delo, who is Zanzibari. The pair say they noticed that beachfront resorts often charged premium rates while the neighboring village saw little benefit from that tourism economy. Alia: Their response is Liyongo, sixty leasehold villas with off-plan sales opening this October and handover targeted for 2028. Each villa carries an individual title under Zanzibar's Condominium Act, with foreign ownership structured through a ninety nine year lease, renewable in thirty three year terms. Badru: The report explains that owners get three weeks a year to use their villa personally. For the rest of the year, villas can be rented out, with rental income pooled and distributed to owners quarterly, while a management team handles bookings and upkeep. Alia: On design, the developers say the resort uses coral stone walls, makuti roofs, local timber and lime render mixed with crushed coral, with four hundred millimeter thick walls for thermal mass and layouts oriented toward prevailing breezes for natural cooling. Badru: There's also a community dimension described in the piece. The developers say they partnered with Kendwa's local Sheha to shape initiatives including freshwater wells, school equipment, support for local teachers, training and employment pathways for Zanzibaris, and clean-up programs. Alia: The masterplan also includes an artisan market, giving local makers space to sell their work on site, which Nash, who has a background in art history, has called a personal priority within the project. Badru: It's worth remembering this is promotional material from the developers themselves, so claims about community benefit and economic impact reflect their stated intentions rather than independent verification. Whether Liyongo delivers on that balance between private ownership and village benefit will likely become clearer as construction and sales proceed toward that 2028 handover. Alia: A wellness story from the southeast coast this week. According to a press release distributed by EIN Presswire, ENVI Paje, a lodge on Paje Beach, says it is now the first property in Zanzibar to offer what it calls regenerative therapies. Badru: The release describes a spa and recovery space called The Sanctuary, with four treatment rooms, a manicure and pedicure room, and what the lodge calls a recovery lab. That lab reportedly includes hyperbaric oxygen chambers, red light therapy, PEMF devices, and cold immersion, alongside a sauna and an infrared wellness capsule. Alia: Per the release, hyperbaric oxygen is meant to deliver pressurized oxygen to support healing and reduce inflammation, while red light and PEMF are described as supporting the body's repair processes at a cellular level. Those are the lodge's own characterizations, not independently verified claims. Badru: The release also says treatments draw on local ingredients, baobab, coconut, lemongrass, clove, sea salt, and seaweed harvested from Paje's shores, framed as blending what it calls African botanical wisdom with imported wellness technology. Alia: Guests can reportedly book standalone treatments or multi night retreats, four packages named Rebalance, Recharge, Restore and Island Energy, each said to combine therapies with movement, massage and mindfulness sessions. Badru: The release quotes Celine Vadam, ENVI Lodges' Director of Wellbeing, saying the brand wants to support measurable guest recovery while keeping ties to Zanzibar's tradition of healing through plants and spices. Alia: It also announces a five day program this month, called The Limitless Human Residency, running from October twenty ninth to November second, built around a methodology developed by a named longevity specialist, involving bloodwork, diagnostics and follow ups at thirty, sixty and ninety days. Badru: Worth noting, this is a company press release promoting its own services, so the claims about being first in Zanzibar and the specific health benefits come from ENVI Lodges itself, not from an independent health authority or regulator. Alia: Still, if accurate, it signals an attempt to position Zanzibar's south east coast as a wellness tourism destination beyond the usual beach and spice offerings. Badru: Whether that reshapes the island's tourism mix will depend on uptake, and on scrutiny of therapies that remain commercially marketed rather than clinically established in this context. Alia: A banking conference just wrapped up in Zanzibar, and according to Daily News, it offered a clear picture of how Tanzania's digital finance sector has been built from the ground up. Badru: The event was the Tanzania Bankers Association's Research and Financial Inclusion Conference. Daily News spoke with Shehryar Ali, Mastercard's senior vice president for East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, who laid out some striking numbers. Tanzania now has more than seventy five million active mobile money accounts, supported by close to two million agents. Alia: And formal financial inclusion has climbed to seventy six percent of adults, up from sixty five percent back in twenty seventeen. Daily News reports that nine in ten Tanzanians now live within five kilometers of a financial access point. Badru: What stands out in Ali's comments is the emphasis on collaboration rather than any single institution driving this. Mobile network operators reached people branches never could, banks extended into wallets and agent networks, fintechs solved narrow problems, and the Bank of Tanzania built shared infrastructure like the Instant Payment System. Alia: Some concrete examples were mentioned. In November twenty twenty five, Mastercard and Axian Digibank and Fintech announced a collaboration across five African markets, including Tanzania through the Mixx brand, bringing cards and mobile banking services together. There's also a partnership with Tigo and Selcom letting Tigo Pesa customers generate a virtual card straight from their wallet. Badru: Why this matters is the gap it could address. Daily News notes that Tanzania's small and medium enterprises make up most businesses in the country, yet they account for barely a fifth of outstanding bank lending. Working with NMB Bank, Mastercard supported what's described as Africa's first rollout of QR Pay by Link, letting vendors accept card payments without any card machine. Alia: Ali's point was that every digital payment leaves a record, and that record is what lenders eventually use to assess risk. If that holds up, it could gradually bring more businesses into formal credit systems over time. Badru: Security was raised as a precondition rather than an afterthought. Mastercard says it applies the same fraud detection and tokenization standards in Tanzania as elsewhere, arguing that trust, once lost after a bad digital experience, can take years to rebuild. Alia: The broader message from the Zanzibar conference, as Daily News captured it, was that Tanzania's digital economy was not imported but built locally, with global partners like Mastercard positioned to support rather than lead that growth. Alia: Now to a significant mining sector announcement from mainland Tanzania. Habari Leo reports that the government plans to dramatically expand geophysical research coverage, from about sixteen percent of the country's land area currently to at least fifty percent by 2030. Badru: That is a major jump, and it is tied directly to economic ambitions. According to the report, mining already contributes ten percent of Tanzania's GDP as of the 2025 to 2026 period, and accounts for fifty six percent of the country's foreign currency earnings. Alia: The announcement came from Deputy Minister of Minerals, Dr Steven Kiruswa, speaking at the launch of a Mining Technology Exhibition held at the Dr Samia Suluhu grounds in Geita. Badru: Kiruswa explained that more detailed geophysical research would give the ministry accurate data on rock formations containing mineral indicators. That, he said, should help identify new areas for small scale miners and reduce the exploration costs that often drain their limited capital. Alia: He also framed this as part of a broader effort to move small scale mining away from superstition and toward science, describing it as part of what the ministry calls its Vision 2030 approach. Badru: There is also an existing support program mentioned in the report, called Mining for a Better Tomorrow. It reportedly offers tools, technical assistance, research data, licensing support, and help accessing business and investment opportunities. Alia: On the policy side, the ministry says it is reviewing land rights law alongside mineral rights law, aiming to reduce conflicts between the two. Badru: That issue was echoed by Geita's Regional Commissioner, Alexander Mnyeti, who said conflicts linked to this legal overlap have been common, and argued the ministry needs to act quickly to protect Tanzanians' interests. Alia: On the numbers, TANTRADE's Deputy Director, Fredy Liundi, cited Bank of Tanzania figures showing mineral sales reached eleven point seven trillion shillings in 2025, up from about seven point two trillion shillings in 2021. Badru: Liundi described that increase as evidence of steady management of the sector under the current government. Alia: The exhibition itself, now in its ninth year, drew seven hundred sixty five participants according to Geita's Regional Administrative Secretary, Mohamed Gombati, including fifteen mining companies. Badru: The Chief Executive of Geita Gold Mining Limited, Ashraf Suryaningrat, praised the event as a platform for knowledge sharing, business connections, and industry relationships. Alia: If the research expansion target is met, it could reshape opportunities for small scale miners across the country, though that outcome will depend on how quickly the ministry implements these plans. Alia: Tanzania and Russia have agreed to deepen cooperation across a wide range of sectors, according to a report from Daily News. Badru: The talks happened on September thirtieth in Dar es Salaam, when Tanzania's Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ambassador Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, met with a delegation from the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. Alia: That delegation was led by Denis Agafonov, who serves as Director of Analysis in that office. According to the report, the meeting took place at the Ministry's offices in Dar es Salaam. Badru: The two sides agreed to strengthen strategic cooperation in areas including digital technology, education, health, mining, trade, investment, fisheries, the blue economy, tourism, transport, manufacturing, agriculture and energy. That is a long list, which suggests the discussions were framed as a broad partnership rather than a narrow deal. Alia: Daily News reports the stated aim of this cooperation is to promote sustainable investment, strengthen energy and food security, and expand the use of modern technologies to support development and improve wellbeing in both countries. Badru: Those are the government's own stated goals, as reported, so it is worth being clear that this is an agreement to cooperate rather than a finalized set of projects with timelines or figures attached. Alia: At the end of the meeting, Agafonov thanked the Tanzanian government for the cooperation, saying it had allowed the delegation to meet stakeholders from various sectors and discuss strategies for strengthening collaboration on project implementation. Badru: The report also notes this followed earlier discussions between Tanzania and Russia on establishing a more efficient payment system for trade and investment between the two countries. Alia: So what we have here, based on the reporting, is a broad statement of intent spanning digital technology, mining, trade, the blue economy, tourism and energy, alongside a related push toward smoother trade payments. Badru: Whether that translates into concrete projects will depend on follow-up steps that have not yet been detailed in this reporting. For now, the two governments have signaled an intention to widen their partnership across these sectors. Alia: Let us close this edition of ZNZist Weekly with a story about where Zanzibar's tourism sector might be heading. The Daily News reports that Zanzibar is exploring artificial intelligence and other digital tools to strengthen tourism, improve visitor services, and sharpen the islands' competitiveness. Badru: This came up during the 2026 World Tourism Day celebrations in Zanzibar, where the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Heritage, Dr Aboud Suleiman Jumbe, spoke to stakeholders from across the sector. Alia: Dr Aboud said AI could help tourists get information about destinations, accommodation, attractions and activities, which in theory makes trip planning easier and could improve the overall visitor experience. He also pointed to using the technology to promote beaches, marine attractions, historical sites, and heritage internationally. Badru: Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Dr Ashatu Kijaji echoed that in her own World Tourism Day message, saying government would keep working with the private sector to expand digital technology and AI use in tourism. This year's global theme was framed around a digital agenda and artificial intelligence reshaping tourism, so Zanzibar's push fits into that wider conversation. Alia: Dr Aboud also noted continued government investment in supporting infrastructure, roads, airports, ports, water, electricity, health services, security and communication systems, saying the next priority is equipping young people with skills to work with emerging technologies. Badru: Some context from UN Tourism figures shared at the event, 1.5 billion international tourists travelled in 2025, spending about 1.8 trillion US dollars, which works out to roughly 1,200 dollars per visitor. That gives a sense of the scale of the global market Zanzibar is trying to compete in. Alia: GIZ representative Nicolas Lamade also spoke, calling tourism a key pillar of Zanzibar's economy and pledging continued cooperation on sustainable tourism, including programmes linking tourism with the blue economy while protecting beaches, forests, marine resources and cultural heritage. Badru: He added that digital tools could also help with water and energy efficiency, waste management, and monitoring marine resources, provided local communities actually benefit from the innovation. That is worth watching as these plans move from statements to implementation. Alia: And that wraps up this edition of ZNZist Weekly. Badru: Thanks for listening, we will be back with more Zanzibar and Tanzania news next time.