Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz says foreign firms crowd out local contractors

Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz said foreign companies still win most of Tanzania's large government contracts, leaving local builders with small jobs and late payments, and urged the government to give domestic firms a fair chance at major infrastructure and mining projects.

Aziz, chairman of Taifa Group, the holding company behind liquefied petroleum gas supplier Taifa Gas, made the remarks as guest of honor at the African Construction and Mining Excellence Awards gala dinner in Dar es Salaam on Nov. 7.

Local contractors are left with small jobs and delayed payments, Aziz said, a squeeze that can push capable companies into bankruptcy. He called for policies and laws that give Tanzanian firms real opportunities and protect fair competition, and pointed to South Africa as a country that has built an environment in which domestic contractors take on major projects.

"Experience is not gained by waiting. It is gained by doing the work," he said in Swahili. "There must first be someone who believes the company can do that job."

Mining as the model

Aziz said the local content rules the Ministry of Minerals applies in mining, which were amended in 2025, should serve as a template for construction, energy and other sectors. The rules require mining companies to use Tanzanian suppliers, services and workers.

"Like what is being practised in the mining sector, Tanzanians are very capable of owning their nation's economy," he said. "They can't advance without unlocking these opportunities for them."

He said building roads, railways and dams is not enough if Tanzanian contractors do not grow alongside them, and that Tanzanians should keep a larger share of the value from the country's resources. "Let us not build a one-trillion-dollar economy in which our youth are merely spectators," he said.

Aziz said greater local participation does not mean handing contracts to Tanzanian companies regardless of their ability. Not every local firm can handle every large project, he said, but capacity can be built by buying or leasing equipment, hiring experts and forming partnerships. Contractors should be judged on their experts, finances, track record, safety and quality, not on their name, nationality or language, he said, and he rejected the assumption that a company is capable because it is foreign and incapable because it is local.

Government, banks, contractors and local professionals all share responsibility, Aziz said. The state should set fair policies, banks should provide capital and companies should build skills and work with integrity.

Deals at home and abroad

The remarks follow a setback for Aziz's own expansion in Tanzania's energy sector. On Oct. 5, the Fair Competition Commission prohibited Taifa Gas's planned purchase, with Amber Energy Investment, of Orca Energy Group Inc.'s Tanzanian business, which operates the Songo Songo gas field. The regulator gave no reasons.

Aziz co-founded Vodacom Tanzania and sold a 17% stake in the carrier in 2014 for about $250 million. Taifa Gas runs LPG import terminals in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar and is building a $130 million terminal in the Dongo Kundu special economic zone near Mombasa, Kenya. In March, his company Taarifa Ltd. agreed to buy control of Kenya's Nation Media Group from the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, a deal that gives him an indirect 54.08% stake in East Africa's largest media house.

Aziz represented Igunga in Tanzania's parliament for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi from 1994 to 2011 and served as the party's national treasurer. Forbes named him Tanzania's first dollar billionaire in 2013.