Tanzanian billionaire Mo Dewji pledges $11.3 million to build stadium for Simba SC

Mohammed Dewji, Tanzania's only billionaire, has committed about $11.3 million (TSh30 billion) to build Simba Sports Club a match stadium and training complex at Bunju on the northern edge of Dar es Salaam, and said no ground can be broken until the club's Board of Trustees approves the proposal.

The development would include a stadium for domestic league fixtures, six training pitches serving the men's first team, the women's side Simba Queens and the club's youth sides, a gymnasium, recovery facilities, a five-star residential camp and administrative offices.

"I am waiting for the club's Board of Trustees to make a decision on the matter," Dewji said. "If they accept the proposal, the project could start as early as tomorrow."

He spoke Saturday at Simba Day, the club's annual squad presentation, held at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam. This year's edition marked 90 years since the club was founded in 1936 as The Queens, later renamed Sunderland and, in 1971, Simba.

Dewji holds 49 percent of Simba Sports Club Company Limited. He paid TSh20 billion for the stake in July 2021, worth about $8.6 million at the time, after the Fair Competition Commission cleared the transaction following a lengthy review that included an investigation into whether the restructuring amounted to an unnotified merger. Club members hold the remaining 51 percent. He chaired the board of directors until September 2021, returned to the chairmanship in June 2024 and handed it to Crescentius Magori in September last year. He is now the club's honorary president and principal investor.

Forbes estimates Dewji's net worth at $2.1 billion, placing him 14th among Africa's wealthiest people and making him the only Tanzanian on the list. He is chief executive of MeTL Group, the conglomerate his father founded in the 1970s, which operates in 11 countries across manufacturing, agriculture, trading, financial services, real estate and logistics. The dollar figure for the Bunju pledge is a Billionaires.Africa calculation using the Aug. 7 rate of 2,650 shillings to the dollar.

Bunju has been on Simba's plans for a decade. Dewji first raised the site in August 2016, when he offered $10 million for a controlling stake in the club and earmarked $2.5 million within that bid for a stadium and training ground there. Construction on a first phase began in August 2019, when the foundation stone was laid at a ceremony attended by then sports minister Harrison Mwakyembe. Dewji said at the time he would pay for that phase himself, separately from the investment terms agreed with the club. A training pitch was completed at the site.

Simba plays its competitive home fixtures at the 60,000-capacity Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam, the national ground, which it does not own.

Dewji also said the restructuring of the club's leadership and operations, begun in 2017, remains unfinished nine years on.

"I am very surprised that, up to now, we have not completed the transformation of the club's leadership and operations, which is important for its development," he said. "We have had ups and downs on this matter, but we need to get through it and start a new era."

He rejected criticism directed at him over his role at the club. "There are so many things that have been said against me, and they are not all true," he said. "I am loyal to the club. I love the club."

Simba has come close to a continental title without taking one. The club lost the 2024-25 CAF Confederation Cup final to Morocco's RS Berkane in May last year, going down 3-1 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw in the second leg in Zanzibar. It also lost the 1993 CAF Cup final to Stella Adjamé of Ivory Coast. In the CAF Champions League it has reached the quarter-finals three times, in 2020-21, 2022-23 and 2023-24, and its best run in the competition remains a semi-final place in 1974.

"My dream is still there, to make the club win a title in Africa," Dewji said. "We have managed to do well several times, but now we need to go beyond what we have achieved. I call for unity within the club."

Simba's most recent continental campaign ended in the group stage, with five points from six matches and elimination one point behind Angola's Petro Atlético. Domestically, the club won the CRDB Bank Federation Cup in July, beating Azam FC 1-0 in the final in Pemba to claim its first major domestic trophy since 2022. It finished the 2025-26 NBC Premier League as runner-up on 73 points, two behind Young Africans, who took a fifth consecutive title. Simba's last league championship came in 2020-21.

Second place returns Simba to the CAF Champions League in 2026-27. The club meets Young Africans in the Community Shield on Aug. 12, and the new Tanzanian league season begins Aug. 14.