‘Silicon Zanzibar’ lost one of its main companies. Can Tanzania still make it Africa’s tech hub?

The mere mention of Zanzibar evokes images of sun-kissed beaches, pristine water and year-round sunshine. The picturesque island off the coast of Tanzania in east Africa has long been a celebrated tourist hotspot. But in recent years, the country has been orchestrating a shift in the island’s identity in an effort to christen it Silicon Zanzibar—Africa’s tech capital. 

To enable tech’s growth in Zanzibar, the country is rolling out multiple incentives to attract Pan-African tech companies. Relocating tech workers are getting visas easily, making it more seamless for startups in Zanzibar to attract global talent and retain them. Moreover, companies based in the Zanzibar Free Economic Zone are subject to several incentives such as a 10-year exemption from corporate tax. 

The effort was buoyed in late 2022, when Wasoko—Africa’s largest B2B e-commerce company—shifted part of its team to Zanzibar, becoming a leading proponent of the Silicon Zanzibar effort. Daniel Yu, CEO of Wasoko, says part of what drew him to the island was the Tanzanian government’s effort as compared to its home base of Kenya. Throughout 2022, Yu says, “We ended up then expanding the collaboration with the government to become this kind of wider initiative… that is promoting this opportunity to any company that’s interested in benefiting from the same kind of work that we’re doing.”

But in March, not long after its valuation was slashed from $510 million to $260 million, the company pulled the plug on its Zanzibar campus as it merged with Egyptian company MaxAB. Wasoko consolidated its tech outfit in Egypt to “optimize on the resources between the two companies,” Yu said in an email. And though the company told Fast Company via email that it was still “fully dedicated to establishing Zanzibar as the leading destination for Africa’s tech talent to thrive” as a private-sector ambassador, though a big part of its role was an exemplar of what Silicon Zanzibar could be.

But even without Wasoko in Zanzibar, the island’s potential as a haven for tech companies remains. For one, it’s part of one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. By 2028, the IMF projects Tanzania’s GDP to reach $136 billion from the current $85.9 billion. The key will be diversifying beyond its thriving agricultural and fishing sectors, and adding industries that are less unpredictable than the country’s tourism market. Though it’s driven by the roughly 50,000 climbers who attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro every year, the pandemic highlighted its unpredictability.  As smaller companies move into Zanzibar, educational institutions are also moving in, setting up a pipeline of educated workers to companies that relocate there. 

In November 2023, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), known as a top-tier technological institution in India, established its first international campus in Zanzibar. The 200-acre campus marks a significant development that bolsters Zanzibar’s role as a burgeoning tech education landscape. Another feather  in Zanzibar’s tech education cap is the expansion of African School of Economics (ASE) to Zanzibar, marking the university’s first location in East Africa where it will deliver degree programs focused on STEM and social science.

ASE founder and president Leonard Wanthekon says Zanzibar has “potential to be at least a very important tech hub in Africa.” He adds that his aim is to attract students and faculties from across Africa, and eventually from the world to ASE Zanzibar. “We need to really develop pan-African markets for education. For instance, having people from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa to seamlessly move from one region to another to learn and to interact. We already have a campus in Nigeria, which will represent West Africa mostly…so we need something in East Africa.” Wantchekon, who also teaches politics, international affairs, and economics at Princeton is also spearheading efforts to forge research collaborations between ASE Zanzibar and Princeton with faculty from the Ivy League school visiting ASE Zanzibar to teach in the near future. 

Tech worker-focused developments like Fumba Town are also cropping up. The spacious, green neighborhood-to-be was unveiled in 2015, and when it’s complete in 2030, it will include about 3,000 residential units with access to 1.5 km of seafront. “(Fumba Town) creates a safe environment for people coming from the tech industry to be able to easily navigate and set base over here,” says Andrew Mwaimu, sales specialist at CPS, the developer behind Fumba Town. 

Although developments are slowly taking place in the shape of tech institutions and infrastructure, the Silicon Zanzibar vision is still in its nascent stages and has a long way to go to truly achieve its mission. Before Wasoko packed up its operations on the island, Yu admitted that the “vision will require significant time and effort,” but could offer something unique for African startups who want a workforce that represents the diversity of the continent.  

“No one country is going to have all of the talent that you need to be successful across all 54,” he says. “We have to have these kinds of places, these kinds of ecosystems that enable us to bring together the best talent from all the different corners of Africa and beyond. And so, I do believe that Zanzibar from a tech company perspective, could be that place.”

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