Four Grants Open, TTCL Returns to Profit, SmartLab Closes Climate Innovation Expo
The Roundup [April 20-26, 2026]
1. UNDP, WFP, GIZ Want Founders to Apply
Tanzania’s applications window is unusually busy this week.
Four innovation funding calls are open at the same time as a stack of senior hires and an East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) internship cohort, with most deadlines clustered between April 27 and May 31.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is behind two of the calls. The Energy Efficiency Hackathon, run with the Ministry of Energy, the Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organization (TIRDO), and the Embassy of Ireland under the Ushirikiano wa Kijani project, is taking teams across smart energy monitoring, energy-efficient buildings, and integrated water and energy management, with winners receiving up to Sh10 million and a slot at Innovation Week Tanzania (IWTz) 2026 in June.
The FUNGUO Innovation Programme, co-funded by the European Union, the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), plus Finland, and implemented by UNDP Tanzania with Anza, Westerwelle Startup Haus Arusha (WSHA), StartHub Africa, and COSTECH, opened its GreenCatalyst window on April 14 with catalytic grants of 10 to 100 million shillings for forestry-value-chain MSMEs with offices or operations in Iringa, Njombe, Ruvuma and Lindi, closing May 31.
The World Food Programme (WFP) launched the IGNITE Challenge Tanzania 1.0 with StartHub Africa, putting up to $40,000 in seed funding behind water solutions for school and refugee-camp gardens and nutritious complementary foods for children aged 6 to 59 months. Applications close on May 13.
GIZ Tanzania and the EAC are running the TWT SolutionLab 2026 on May 9 at the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), in partnership with LPdigital and the Digital Transformation Centre Tanzania. The lab is aimed at women innovators across digital safety, agritech, education, health, climate, and sexual and reproductive health rights, with cash prizes, incubation places and entry into the SheTech Incubation Programme on offer.
On the hiring side, AzamPesa is recruiting a Senior Cyber Security Specialist with a five-year experience floor and a brief built around Bank of Tanzania (BoT) regulatory alignment, by May 3.
Green Resources, the forestry group operating across Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya, was hiring a Managing Director by April 27. Q-Sourcing Servtec, on the otehr hand, is staffing more than ten internship roles for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. Azam Marine is hiring a Logistics Manager by May 1.
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2. TTCL Swings From $7.3Mn Loss to $9Mn Profit
When Moremi Marwa took over the state-owned telecoms company TTCL in 2024, he came to it from capital markets.
He had spent the previous nine years running the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, where he took the exchange public in 2016, after earlier roles at Tanzania Securities, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Barclays, and Bank of Africa Tanzania.
A year and a half into his tenure, TTCL has flipped from a Sh17.9 billion loss to a Sh22.9 billion profit on its 2024/25 books.
Revenue rose 30% to Sh220 billion, and what the company owes suppliers fell from 160 billion to under 100 billion. The Citizen reported the figures on Saturday, citing the latest Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report.
Cleaning up the books was the first half of the job. Marwa is now putting capital into the network.
TTCL plans 1,400 new mobile towers in two waves of 626 and 850 over the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years, and is rolling its Faiba Mlangoni Kwako home fibre product out across Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza, Geita, Iringa and Mbeya, targeting one million connected homes by 2027.
The build-out has to happen without losing the wholesale customers that have always paid TTCL’s bills.
The other Tanzanian telcos rent space on the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) TTCL owns, which reaches 121 of 139 mainland districts.
Marwa spent Sunday in Geita and Mwanza, inspecting NICTBB stations to “ensure the Corporation delivers high-quality and reliable communication services,” TTCL reported.
3. SmartLab, Climate KIC Close Third ClimAccelerator Cohort with Country’s First Climate Innovation Expo
Tanzania held its first Climate Innovation Expo in Dar es Salaam on April 22. The event closed the third cohort of the Adaptation and Resilience ClimAccelerator, run by SmartLab and Climate KIC, and drew 180 attendees.
Earlier cohorts had wrapped at closed demo days.
The 26 exhibitors spanned the current cohort, alumni from earlier rounds, and Climate-KIC's wider Tanzanian portfolio. Agrimwendo, Plant Natural Feed and Ubuntu AfyaLink pitched from the stage; Wakulima Agrifood, Dream Bees, Asilia Mbolea, Shamba Direct, Twiga Architec, Miracula Plastics and Green Composting filled out the cohort floor.
Alumni included Rada 360, the AI and satellite weather service that won €10,000 at last April’s demo day; MazaoHub, the Dar agritech that closed a $2 million pre-seed in September led by Catalyst Fund; HERVEG.05, the climate-resilient vegetable venture; and Kilimo Smart.
Circular-economy and clean-energy stands ran from Nishati Eco, Kapok Collective and Cutoff Recycle to Makonda Renewable Tech, Maoric Investments, Safesip and Sea Blue Innovators.
Climate KIC’s portfolio organisations brought Climate Hub Tanzania, which turns paper waste, charcoal dust and cow dung into fuel briquettes, and ECCT, whose Eco Warriors programme turns textile waste into fashion.
EmpowerHer, New Light Children Centre Organization and Lima Africa exhibited from the youth and community-led side.
Larry Ayo, business director at SmartLab, opened the morning. “Africa does not have a shortage of climate ideas,” he told the audience. “We have a shortage of climate businesses that scale.”
Three current-cohort founders pitched.
William Mdemu built Agrimwendo around the gap between Tanzania’s one agronomist per 2,800 farmers and the World Bank's threshold of one per 500. “In Tanzania, being a farmer is like being thrown into the mouths of sharks,” he said.
Regina Mushi of Plant Natural Feed walked through her four-year path from a 2022 Sokoine Agricultural University (SUA) research partnership to her first $50,000 in revenue in 2024, on a biochar that traps 2.2 tons of carbon per ton produced.
Anody Kaihula founded Ubuntu AfyaLink after a generator ran out of fuel mid-delivery in a maternity ward.
“You can't treat what you can't see,” he told the room. Ubuntu AfyaLink now runs solar systems in thirteen rural health facilities, designed around the specific services each clinic needs to keep running.
The afternoon panel turned to climate finance. ActionAid’s Happy Itros, Tanzania’s COP30 delegate on adaptation, said the current funding system rewards compliance over substance and crowds out adaptation work because it takes time to show returns.
“If our funding system awards compliance, awards polished projects that can speak the language of investors and donors, then we are leaving behind a huge number of innovators,” she said.
CRDB’s Ramla Msuya pointed to existing capital. The bank, Tanzania’s only Green Climate Fund-accredited institution, runs a $200 million agriculture adaptation window co-financed with the GCF.
Its 2023 Kijani Bond raised Sh172 billion against a Sh55 billion target at a 10.25% coupon.
Hatch Blue’s Shamim Wasii Nyanda, whose €150 million VC backs seafood and aquaculture, said most early-stage pitches do not yet show the revenue and scalability investors look for. "Young people in the country are being over-capacitated, over-empowered, but underfunded," she said.
COSTECH’s Gerald Kafuku said the agency lends through CRDB at 11% with no collateral, up to Sh300 million per company, and the facility is underused because applicants do not have proven products.
“We have not solved one thing, and it’s rarely spoken,” he said. “People don’t talk about product design and development and mass production.” The bottleneck, he said, is tooling capacities such as welding, casting, forging, materials engineering.
BRIEFS
4. President Samia Names Mwasalyanda to Run TCRA
President Samia Suluhu Hassan named Engineer Peter Mwasalyanda Director General of TCRA on Friday, ending Dr. Jabiri Bakar”
BRIEFS
4. President Samia Names Mwasalyanda to Run TCRA
President Samia Suluhu Hassan named Engineer Peter Mwasalyanda Director General of TCRA on Friday, ending Dr. Jabiri Bakar”
BRIEFS
4. President Samia Names Mwasalyanda to Run TCRA
President Samia Suluhu Hassan named Engineer Peter Mwasalyanda Director General of TCRA on Friday, ending Dr. Jabiri Bakari’s term.
Mwasalyanda was running the Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF), where coverage of Tanzanians went from 45% in 2006 to 98%. Bakari moves to head the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA).
5. Dangote Pledges 650,000 Barrel Tanga Refinery With Kenya and Uganda Backing
Aliko Dangote told the Africa We Build Summit in Nairobi on Wednesday he will build a 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Tanga within five years, with Presidents Ruto of Kenya and Museveni of Uganda backing the plan.
Dangote also proposes a Mombasa-to-Tanga crude pipeline to feed it.
Tanga is where the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) ends, now 79% built and on track for first oil in October 2026.
6. JDE Peet’s, Tchibo and Louis Dreyfus Map Six East African Coffee Belts
JDE Peet’s, Tchibo and Louis Dreyfus launched the Coffee Canopy Partnership on April 22 to map coffee farms in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi for forest loss using Airbus satellite imagery.
The European Union (EU) Deforestation Regulation requires traders to prove no produce comes from land cleared after 31 December 2020. This is the cut-off Tanzanian arabica and robusta growers must meet to keep selling to European buyers.
7. Manufacturing Africa Graduates First Tanzania Group From Green Business Accelerator
Manufacturing Africa graduated its first all-Tanzania group from the Green Business Building accelerator last week.
Beneficiaries include Lishe360 (digital nutrition education and fortified foods), Zaidi Recyclers (app-led waste recovery), Aquacom (solar-powered aquaculture systems), Afya Lead (local medical manufacturing) and Roverlabs (3D-printed custom limbs).
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) programme has worked with 46 green manufacturers across Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda since launch on aquaculture, agroprocessing, packaging, clean energy, waste management and biochar.
8. Google Picks Tanzania’s Safiri for 10th Africa Accelerator Group
Google announced its 10th Africa accelerator group last Wednesday, picking 15 startups out of 2,600 applicants.
Safiri, a Tanzanian platform that builds digital systems for moving people and goods around Africa, is in the group. The programme runs from April 13 to June 19.
9. VC4A Holds Tanzania Pitch Competition on East African Tour
VC4A held its Tanzania pitch competition in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, as part of the local stops on an East African tour from April 19 to 29 that also went to Nairobi, Kampala and Kigali. More than 10 startups competed for a 100,000 euro matching grant and technical help.
10. Tanzania Standard Newspapers Opens Mwanza Youth Investment Forum
State-owned TSN launched Jukwaa la Wazi Fungua Fursa in Mwanza on Friday, a youth and investment forum that brings loan applications, financial literacy classes, health insurance sign-up and farming consultations into one place.
Mwanza Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) Elikana Balandya opened the launch.
