Indians in Tanzania: the 2026 guide to the community, the census figures, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, work permits, taxes, temples and Diwali

About 55,000 overseas Indians (Indian citizens and people of Indian origin) live in Tanzania, in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ estimate for January 2026. That is 15,000 Indian citizens and 40,000 people of Indian origin. The High Commission of India in Dar es Salaam describes the community in similar round numbers on a page it updated on 22 October 2026: about 40,000 people of Indian origin, and 15,000 to 20,000 Indian nationals, mostly professionals. These are national estimates, not counts by suburb or town. Tanzania’s own 2022 census asked about citizenship and not ethnicity. It counted 9,483 Indian citizens among 61,741,120 residents, and it published no count of Tanzanians of Indian origin. The numbers section says what each figure measures.

The High Commission says people of Indian origin live mainly in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Morogoro, Zanzibar and Mbeya, and most families trace their roots to Kutch and Kathiawad in Gujarat. This page is the country guide. It covers the history, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, the towns, the national rules that a newcomer from India meets (work and residence permits, tax, health cover, banking, the High Commission in Dar es Salaam and the Consulate General in Zanzibar), safety and the festival year. We did not research rents, Indian grocers or mosques and jamatkhanas, and say so where it matters. Indians in Kenya tells the parallel story across the northern border.

Several things changed in 2026 and shape what follows. The High Commission’s fee sheets changed on 1 April and, for passports, on 1 July. Tanzania published regulations on 4 September that require most foreign visitors to buy government travel insurance. A commission appointed by the President reported on 23 April on the violence around the 29 October 2025 election. On 17 October the Ministry of Health tightened entry screening because of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a case in Kenya, and no case had been reported in Tanzania. On 20 October the UK government added a warning about possible protests around 29 October. Each is covered below.

The Indian government’s figure

The ministry’s 55,000 counts Indian citizens (15,000) and people of Indian origin (40,000), and it is an estimate for January 2026. The High Commission’s own page gives a range for the first group, 15,000 to 20,000 Indian nationals, mostly professionals. The ministry’s table, as we read it, gives no method for either number.

What the 2022 census counted

Tanzania’s census had its reference night on 22 and 23 August 2022. It was the sixth since the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964 and the first digital one. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a Basic Demographic and Socio-Economic Profile for the whole country in April 2024, and in Table 6.7 (printed page 98) it gives the country of citizenship of everyone enumerated: 61,741,120 people, of whom 61,457,853 were Tanzanians and 283,267 (0.5%) held another citizenship. The profile reports citizenship, and it has no table of ethnicity or religion. A Tanzanian citizen whose family came from India is therefore in the “Tanzania” row and cannot be told apart.

The 9,483 Indian citizens were 5,865 men and 3,618 women, and 8,748 of them (92%, by our arithmetic) lived in urban areas. Tables A6.1 and A6.2 (printed pages 314 and 315) split them between the mainland, with 9,057, and Zanzibar, with 426. India was the second-largest group from outside Africa after Saudi Arabia, and 3.3% of all non-citizens. The Dar es Salaam Region profile (Table 6.5, printed page 55) has 5,383,728 people, of whom 5,350,545 were Tanzanian and 15,168 held the citizenship of a country outside Africa; it does not split that group by country, and the profile’s own summary quotes a different figure for the same group (11,082), so we use the table.

How this fits the ministry’s figure

The census count of Indian citizens, 9,483, is lower than the ministry’s 15,000 and the High Commission’s 15,000 to 20,000. The census counted people present on one night and the ministry’s estimate may include people on short assignments or registered with the mission, but none of the documents we read explains the gap, so we do not net the figures against each other. When someone asks how many Indians live in Tanzania, quote the ministry’s figure with its date, and say that the census counted citizens of India and did not count people of Indian origin.

Older counts

These are from Wikipedia’s articles, which cite colonial and later sources we did not open, and the categories differ (race, religion, nationality), so read them as the shape of the curve.

Before the nineteenth century

Wikipedia’s article on Indians in Tanzania says Gujarati traders came each year on the trade winds, gradually settled, and came to control the trade of Zanzibar, and that buildings from that period still stand in Stone Town. It adds that when Vasco da Gama reached the east coast he met Indians living at Kilwa Kisiwani, Mombasa and Mozambique. The High Commission’s account is shorter: most families trace their roots to Kutch and Kathiawad, and their ancestors came from the early nineteenth century as merchants, sailors and workers. A 1996 Hinduism Today report says the earliest Hindu settlers on Zanzibar can be traced back about 250 years, but it gives no source, so treat that as the community’s own account.

Zanzibar’s Indian houses

The Wikipedia article on the Indian diaspora in south-eastern Africa says Indian merchants held Zanzibar’s trade through the nineteenth century as the sultan’s exclusive agents, that Parsis settled there as merchants and civil servants in one of the largest Parsi communities outside India, and that a locally owned bank, Jetha Lila, closed after the 1964 revolution when its customers left. Two merchants show the scale.

Tharia Topan was a Khoja merchant, born in 1823 at Lakhpar in Cutch. By his twenties he was head of the credit department of a Zanzibar trading firm. He went on to trade in cloves, spices and ivory, banked for local and European merchants, and was appointed chief of customs in 1876. Wikipedia says his success drew many Khoja and other mercantile families from British India, and that he sponsored Ismaili migrants to settle in Zanzibar and other towns. In 1887 he commissioned the Old Dispensary in Stone Town, a charitable hospital marking Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. He died in 1891 with the building unfinished, and it was completed in 1894 under a new owner. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture restored it after decades of decay.

Sewa Haji Paroo (about 1851 to 1897), an Ismaili trader born at Bagamoyo, was the sultan’s main trader and a major philanthropist. Wikipedia says he founded and financed the Sewa Haji Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Its article on Muhimbili National Hospital says the hospital traces its origins to 1897 and was renamed Princess Margaret Hospital in 1956, and then Muhimbili after independence.

The mainland: Dar es Salaam, German and British rule

Wikipedia says Sultan Majid of Zanzibar began Dar es Salaam in 1865 or 1866. Zanzibar became a British protectorate in 1890, under the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty, while the mainland was ruled by Germany until the First World War and then by Britain as Tanganyika Territory. The territory article says British rule helped the Asian community: they were no longer attacked as they had been during the war, and many came from the Indian administration to work for the Tanganyikan one, so that the number of Asians rose from 8,698 in 1912 to 25,144 in 1931. The history article records two Indians among the seven unofficial members of the Legislative Council when it was set up in 1926, four among fifteen unofficial members in 1948, and ten in 1955, matching the ten Europeans and ten Africans. It describes Asians and Arabs as the middle class, wholesale and retail traders, and says that growers sold their crops to Indian traders at poor prices and that the colonial government encouraged farming co-operatives, over 400 by the early 1950s. By 1957 Tanganyika had 65,461 Indians, 6,299 Pakistanis and 4,776 Goans. The mainland became independent on 9 December 1961.

The Kenya guide tells how the Uganda Railway brought indentured labourers from India to the north. In Tanganyika, according to the accounts above, the community was formed more by merchants and clerks than by railway labour.

Independence and the union

Tanganyika became independent on 9 December 1961, and the High Commission of India in Dar es Salaam has operated since 19 November 1961. Zanzibar became independent in December 1963 and the Zanzibar Revolution began on 12 January 1964, overthrowing the sultan. Tanganyika and Zanzibar united on 26 April 1964, according to Wikipedia’s history of Tanzania, and the country took the name Tanzania later that year. Zanzibar keeps its own constitution, president and House of Representatives, which is why a few rules in this guide differ across the channel.

Zanzibar in 1964

Wikipedia’s article on the revolution says Zanzibar had about 230,000 Africans, 50,000 Arabs and 20,000 South Asians, who had long been prominent in business and trade. It records that Arab and South Asian civilians were killed and their property looted, during and after the revolution; that estimates of the number of dead vary from several hundred to 20,000; and that about 10,000 people left the island. The article says the toll is not generally recognised and that the higher estimates may be inflated. The community on the island shrank sharply. The three murtis of the Jain derasar were sent to Nairobi for safekeeping, and a 1996 report said only 600 Hindus remained in Zanzibar. We use no single figure for the dead, because the sources give a wide range.

The Arusha Declaration and the 1971 buildings law

In 1967, under the Arusha Declaration, the government nationalised banks and a range of businesses. The Bank of Baroda’s own history says it entered Tanganyika in 1956, had three branches, in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Moshi, when financial institutions were nationalised up to February 1967, and returned to Tanzania in 2004. Shamlal Puri, writing in The International Indian in 2013, says the declaration led to the nationalisation of foreign-owned banks and businesses and to the expropriation of surplus properties from Asians, and names the Chande Industries mills and 64 Aga Khan schools among the nationalised. Sadruddin Rajabali Meghji, who helped Tanzanian Ismailis move to Canada from 1971 to 1973, wrote on the Simerg website that in April 1971 the government announced the nationalisation of banks, insurance companies, major businesses, farms and schools, and also of homes and other buildings, with lists of the buildings printed in the daily newspaper. He says the takeover of homes and buildings caused panic in the Asian community, and that many left for Britain, India, Pakistan, Canada and the United States. The law behind the building takeovers was the Acquisition of Buildings Act of 1971: a summary of a 1982 Court of Appeal decision, which we read as a search result because the court’s site refused our request, says title passed to the Registrar on acquisition. We did not open the act itself, and found no count of the buildings taken.

These were measures on property, applied by law, and they fell heavily on Asian owners according to the accounts we read. The Arusha Declaration was a national policy and not an ethnic measure, and we found no source on how many owners of other origins were affected. The consequence for the community, in these accounts, was a further wave of emigration after 1964.

Since then

A Zanzibar resident told Hinduism Today in 1996 that the government had recently invited Asians to return, and the same report says Hindus on the island repossessed their temple in 1982. The Hindu Mandal’s hospital, schools and crematorium are described in that report and on the Mandal’s own site today. The High Commission lists four people of Indian origin from Tanzania who have received India’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, in 2005, 2010, 2019 and 2025, and about twenty Indian and Asian community organisations that keep festivals and hold social events. Wikipedia’s lists of notable people include Amir H. Jamal, a former Minister of Finance, and Abdulkarim Karimjee, a former Speaker of the National Assembly.

The High Commission says most Indian-origin families in Tanzania trace their roots to Kutch and Kathiawad. Wikipedia names Gujarati and Kutchi as the main origins, lists Kutchi-Swahili and Odia among the languages, and gives the religions as Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Sikhism, with a significant Christian minority. The 2022 census profile did not ask the questions that would let us count them, so the notes below describe communities and their institutions and not numbers.

Hindus

Hinduism is a minority religion in a country that, in the High Commission’s factsheet of 20 October 2026, is 61.4% Christian and 35.2% Muslim, with Zanzibar almost entirely Muslim. The Swaminarayan tradition is the most visible, with the BAPS Sanstha and the older Shree Tanzania Swaminarayan Mandal, and the Sanatan Dharma temples in the city centre. Community bodies such as Shree Hindu Mandal in Dar es Salaam run hospitals, schools and a crematorium. The temples section lists the places.

Ismailis, Bohras and other Muslims

Ismaili Khoja families, many from Kutch, were among the merchants of nineteenth-century Zanzibar, and the Aga Khan Health Service dates its first dispensary in Dar es Salaam to 1929. Wikipedia lists Shia, Ibadi, Ahmadiyya and Bohra populations in Tanzania. This guide does not map mosques and jamatkhanas.

Jains

The Jain Digest history says Jains began migrating to eastern Africa in the late eighteenth century, mainly to Uganda and Zanzibar and later to Tanganyika, and that around 1885 some began to arrive in Dar es Salaam. Jain Treasures says Kutchi Jain traders settled in Zanzibar, whereas in the rest of East Africa the majority were Halari Visa Oshwals. The Dar es Salaam Jain Sangh was established on 15 August 1930.

Sikhs

The All About Sikhs directory says the Sikh community in Arusha leased a plot in 1929 and put up a small building, Gurdwara Bazaar Arusha, whose new building had its foundation stone laid on 22 November 1961. It lists a Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha on Kisrave Street in Dar es Salaam, and the page is old, so confirm before you go.

Goans, Parsis and others

The 1957 count had 4,776 Goans in Tanganyika, and Wikipedia’s article on the country’s demographics says Portuguese is spoken by Goans and Mozambicans. Wikipedia says the Parsi community of Zanzibar survived until the revolution of 1964.

Newcomers from India

The High Commission says 15,000 to 20,000 Indian nationals work in Tanzania, mostly as professionals. HinduTone, a Hindu-festivals publisher, says they include engineers, doctors and business people on assignments, with South Indian, Bengali and North Indian families alongside the Gujarati majority. Kiswahili is the national language and English is widely understood in urban areas, according to the High Commission’s factsheet.

Dar es Salaam Region had 5,383,728 people in the 2022 census, and 99.9% held Tanzanian citizenship. It is the commercial capital: Dodoma is the official capital, and the Prime Minister’s Office that houses the Labour Commissioner, who issues work permits, has its address there, while the High Commission is in Dar es Salaam.

Where the community is

Wikipedia’s article on the city says Upanga and Kisutu have the highest concentration of Asian communities, with residents of Indian and Arab descent, in colonial houses and mansions built in Indian, Arab and European styles, and that many small businesses in the downtown are run by families from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Kariakoo is the shopping district. The Bank of Baroda’s Tanzanian subsidiary moved its Kariakoo branch to Upanga on 2 September 2025, according to its own history page. We found no source with a count by suburb, so these are descriptions and not numbers.

Streets that matter

Where to eat

We read a personal blog from 14 April 2025, and the other details come from review-site and social-media listings that we saw only as search results, so check that each place is open before you go. Chowpatty on Kisutu Street is described in those listings as vegetarian, and the blog shows South Indian and Punjabi thalis; Mast, a shop away, is run by the same management, serves alcohol and offers a Kathiawadi thali; Chili & Lime, also on Kisutu Street, serves Rajasthani thalis and Indian sweets; Chapan Bhog is listed as a South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Kisutu, and a photo caption in a 2013 article also names it; and the blog names Madras Cafe and Sampann among other Kisutu eateries. We could not confirm the names, streets or opening status of any Indian grocer, so we name none. Ask in the groups before you cross town for a particular brand, and see the Tanzania directory for businesses members have added.

Rents and getting around

We did not find a dated rent source that we could open, and Numbeo refused our request, so this guide gives no rents. The UK government’s advice, covered in the safety section, names the city centre, the Masaki and Oysterbay peninsula (Coco Beach in particular) and Toure Drive as places where residents and tourists have been robbed. The Dar es Salaam events page lists Indian events as organisers post them.

Stone Town was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, and Wikipedia says its buildings mix Arab, Persian, Indian and European elements: carved doors in the Indian style have rounded tops and brass studs, and the lotus is used as a sign of prosperity. Wikipedia’s list of landmarks also records the Old Dispensary, built from 1887 to 1894 by wealthy Indians as a charity hospital, which was restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Zanzibar is almost entirely Muslim, according to the High Commission’s factsheet, and has its own president, constitution and House of Representatives.

The community today

The census counted 426 Indian citizens in Zanzibar in 2022, 4.5% of the 9,483 in the country (our arithmetic), and 354 of them in urban areas. A 1996 report said only 600 Hindus remained after 1964, with two temples. The ministry’s and the High Commission’s figures are national, so we have no count of Tanzanians of Indian origin in Zanzibar.

The temples and the derasar

Consulate General of India

The Consulate General is at 8 Migombani, Zanzibar (P.O. Box 871), telephone +255 24 2232711 or 2230720. Working hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30, and consular hours are 09:30 to 11:30 for submitting applications and 15:30 to 16:30 for collecting documents. Its passport page says applications are made online, selecting TANZANIA-ZANZIBAR, and submitted in hard copy; passports are printed in New Delhi and couriered back, which takes two to three weeks. The High Commission’s page says applicants living in Tanzania submit at Dar es Salaam, and neither page says which mission serves which address, so telephone before you travel.

Studying, working and staying

IIT Madras opened its first offshore campus in Zanzibar on 6 November 2023, offering a BS in Data Science and AI and in Chemical Process Engineering, and an MTech in Data Science and AI and in Ocean Structures. The High Commission says it has over 130 full-time students from Zanzibar, mainland Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and India. For permits, Zanzibar has its own Immigration head office and the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority, and the Labour Commissioner’s work permit covers Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar, according to Immigration’s guidelines. The UK government’s advice tells visitors to dress modestly in Stone Town, and says Zanzibari authorities can fine people USD 700 or more for what they consider inappropriate clothing.

The High Commission lists Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Morogoro, Zanzibar and Mbeya, after Dar es Salaam, as the places where people of Indian origin mainly live. Its report of the 2026 International Day of Yoga says the day was marked in 35 towns and cities across Tanzania, including Dodoma, Arusha, Morogoro, Mwanza, Tanga, Iringa, Tabora, Bagamoyo and Geita, with more than 3,500 people, which shows how widely the mission’s programmes reach and not where Indians live. Worship places in these towns are in the temples table.

Arusha

The High Commission says an Indian Military Training Team has been deployed at the Command and Staff College in Arusha since December 2017, and an Indian parliamentary delegation attended the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s assembly there from 5 to 9 October 2026. A BAPS mandir was opened with a three-day mahotsav from 21 to 23 May 2012, according to BAPS news that we read as a search result because the site refused our request, and BAPS dates its Arusha satsang to a visit by Yogiji Maharaj and Pramukh Swami Maharaj in 1960. The directory entry for the Sikh gurdwara says the community leased a plot in 1929. The Bank of Baroda opened its Arusha branch on 10 August 2007. HinduTone names a Shree Hindu Union that runs a charitable hospital, a recruitment site carried job advertisements from October 2021 for a Shree Hindu Union Charitable Hospital in Arusha, and Wikipedia’s list names an ISKCON centre; we did not confirm that either is open today.

Mwanza

BAPS’s own history, which we read as a search result, says Pramukh Swami Maharaj established mandirs in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza in 1977. India installed a Bhabhatron-II radiation therapy machine at Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza in July 2016, and the High Commission says over 100 cancer patients are treated there daily. The Bank of Baroda opened a Mwanza branch on 21 July 2014. Wikipedia’s list also names a Shri Sanatan Dharma Mandir. HinduTone describes three mandirs on Temple Street and a Hindu Union hospital; we could not confirm those.

Moshi, Tanga, Morogoro and Bukoba

Wikipedia’s list names a Hindu temple on Kilima Street in Moshi, a Hindu Mandal temple on Station Street in Morogoro and a Hindu temple on Barongo Road in Bukoba. BAPS installed murtis in its Tanga mandir on 8 and 9 December 2004, with devotees from Nairobi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Arusha attending. Moshi was one of the Bank of Baroda’s three branches nationalised in 1967.

Dodoma and Mbeya

Dodoma is the official capital, and the Prime Minister’s Office that houses the Labour Commissioner is there. The contracts for the USD 500 million line of credit for water in several towns, with Indian contractors, were signed in Dodoma on 6 June 2022, according to the High Commission. We could not confirm a Hindu temple in Dodoma and did not research Mbeya, so ask the groups before planning around a temple.

Tanzania splits permission to work from permission to live. The Labour Commissioner in the Prime Minister’s Office issues the work permit under the Non-Citizens (Employment Regulation) Act of 2015, and the Commissioner General of Immigration issues the residence permit. The High Commission’s advisory says all Indians taking up employment must hold valid work and residence permits before arriving, and that the employer normally obtains them. The Labour Commissioner’s online system, OWAIS, is linked to Immigration’s e-permit system.

The work permit

Fees and limits are from the OWAIS guidelines, which carry a 2026 version number, and from its FAQ.

New applications must be lodged while the non-citizen is in their home country, and renewals two months before the permit expires. The permit is personal and not transferable; working for a sister company of the employer is a breach of its terms. The fee is neither refundable nor transferable, and the system says nothing else need be paid for a permit. A justification letter to the Labour Commissioner is required in every class: it explains why a non-citizen is needed and what was done to find a local employee. The employer files a return of non-citizens employed twice a year, naming the local successors. Someone who has worked for five years cannot be engaged by another employer unless the Minister exempts them. An aggrieved applicant may appeal to the Minister within thirty days of a rejection. Applicants who come through the Tanzania Investment Centre or the Export Processing Zones Authority pay a USD 100 facilitation fee.

The residence permit

Immigration’s guidelines say anyone who intends to stay more than 90 days needs one. Applications are made online at eservices.immigration.go.tz by the employer, with certified documents, and Classes B and C must be obtained before entering the country, with a few exceptions such as retired persons. Fees below are from the guidelines’ matrices.

After approval the fee must be paid within sixty days or the application is deleted. The applicant then reports to the nearest Immigration office for fingerprints and a photograph, and the permit is issued within a week; the e-permit smart card carries both the work and the residence permit. An East African Community citizen pays half or less in most rows, but India is not a member. The guidelines list no category for a spouse or child. Clyde & Co’s table of April 2023 gives a dependant pass at USD 550 and that firm’s work permit fees are the same as OWAIS’s; ask the employer’s immigration adviser which route and fee apply now.

Visitors and short stays

The High Commission’s undated advisory says visas can be obtained from the Tanzanian High Commission in New Delhi or at points of entry, for tourism and business, with enough funds and a return ticket, and that a business visa suits short assignments and needs a covering letter. A visa never gives a right to work. The advisory adds that short-term permits for six months are granted depending on the work, and that Tanzanian authorities require a yellow-fever certificate from travellers arriving from India; the UK government’s advice says the certificate is required for arrivals from countries listed as a transmission risk. Carry the certificate and ask your airline. Indian nationals should register with the High Commission after arriving (see the missions section).

Citizenship

Tanzania does not allow dual citizenship, the High Commission says, and an Indian who acquires another nationality must renounce Indian citizenship at the mission. Its fee sheet of 1 April 2026 lists renunciation at TSh 220,000. Tanzanian citizens of Indian origin can ask for an OCI card if they meet the conditions in the missions section.

Advice

Apply only through the official portals and pay only the government’s bank accounts and control numbers. The High Commission has warned Indian nationals who were falsely promised better jobs abroad, charged substantial sums and left stranded in transit in Tanzania, and has advised against giving passports to employers: an Indian passport remains the property of the Government of India, and the holder should keep it except when Tanzanian authorities require it.

The High Commission’s page on relations, updated on 22 October 2026, says India is Tanzania’s second-largest trading partner, with trade of USD 9.02 billion in 2025–26, and among the top five sources of investment: the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority recorded Indian investments of USD 4.74 billion in calendar year 2025. The High Commission’s factsheet gives the Indian figure for 2025–26 beside Tanzania’s own for 2025, USD 2.99 billion of goods, so the two sides count very differently, and the difference is worth knowing before you quote either.

Who is named

The High Commission lists these among the major Indian companies in Tanzania: Airtel (telecom), Tata Africa Holdings, Mahindra & Mahindra (tractors), Kamal Group (steel), Kalpataru (power transmission), Tanzindia (insurance), Larsen & Toubro, Afcons, Hester Biosciences (animal vaccines), and Mahashree Agro and Purandare Industries (sugar). Two Indian banks operate in the country: Bank of Baroda, which has its own Tanzanian subsidiary, and Bank of India. Two Indian companies, Pacco Gems Limited and Nazareth Investment Company Limited, hold licences for graphite. The page lists Escorts, Tata, Ashok Leyland, Eicher, Sonalika, Mahindra, Bajaj and TVS vehicles and tractors as widely used.

Water projects

India has committed over USD 1.1 billion in lines of credit to Tanzania for water. One is a USD 500 million line for water in several towns, signed on 10 May 2018, implemented by Larsen & Toubro, an Afcons–Vijeta joint venture, Megha Engineering and Jindal Water Infrastructure, with work under way since April 2023. The page does not say how many Indians these projects employ.

The business forum

The Tanzania India Business Forum, earlier the Indian Business Forum, was launched in September 2013 as a non-profit body that connects business interests in the two countries, represents businesses and professionals of Indian origin, and gives information to Indian companies and professionals setting up in Tanzania. Its website is tibf.or.tz. The High Commission also lists the Dar es Salaam chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India on its pages.

What we could not confirm

We found no source on Indian information-technology employers hiring in Tanzania, so we name none. The company list above is the High Commission’s, not a job board, and it is no guarantee that a firm is hiring. Read any contract with an employer carefully, check that the permit class and the employer’s name match, and keep your own passport.

Income tax is collected by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). On payroll the employer withholds Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and TRA’s page says the employer must withhold on salaries, wages and all other payments forming taxable income. Benefits in kind count: housing provided by the employer is valued at the lower of the market rent and the greater of 15% of the employee’s other income or what the employer claims, and a company car adds a fixed amount by engine size.

The bands for residents

TRA’s page on income tax for individuals gives these monthly bands for Tanzania Mainland and, in a second table, the same for Zanzibar. Annual income of TSh 3,240,000 is not taxable.

Residents and non-residents

TRA says tax is withheld from non-resident employees, for example temporary employees from abroad, at a flat 15% of gross employment income, and that this is effectively final. The Rio Times’ guide of 2026, a secondary source, says a work permit does not settle tax residence: you are resident if you keep a permanent home in Tanzania and visit in the year, or are present 183 days in the year, or average 122 days across the current and two preceding years; residents are taxed on worldwide income, with a credit for foreign tax up to the Tanzanian tax on the same income; and a short-term resident is taxed only on Tanzanian-source income. It also notes that a non-resident on the same salary can pay less than a resident. Ask an accountant before you assume.

The India–Tanzania agreement

India and Tanzania signed a double-taxation agreement in Tanzania on 27 May 2011. It came into force on 12 December 2011 and India gave it effect from 1 April 2012 (notification 8/2012). Under Article 15, salary is taxable only in the country of residence unless the employment is exercised in the other country; and it stays taxable only in the home country if the person is present for no more than 183 days in a twelve-month period, the employer is not a resident of the other country and the pay is not borne by an establishment there. An Indian who stays longer, or whose pay is borne by a Tanzanian employer, can therefore be taxed in Tanzania on the salary; we did not open the Indian rules on relief for foreign tax, so ask an accountant. Pensions are taxable only in the state of residence (Article 18). The same notification refers to an earlier agreement notified in 1981.

Other deductions and returns

Tanzania also has social-security, workers’-compensation and skills-levy schemes, and we did not open their pages, so ask the payroll which apply to you. PAYE is due from the employer by the seventh day of the following month, the Rio Times says. A Taxpayer Identification Number is the key to filing, and registration does not follow automatically from a work permit.

A SIM card

The Electronic and Postal Communications (SIM Card Registration) Regulations 2020, in force from 7 February 2020 according to FB Attorneys’ summary, require biometric registration with an operator or its agent, using a National Identity Card (NIDA) or a National Identity Number. For visitors, the summary says a passport with a valid visa is required, and for foreigners, NIDA identity. A Baker McKenzie guide of 2025, which we read as a search result because the site refused our request, describes how non-citizens with a valid residence or work permit apply for a NIDA card: online first, then in person at a district office for fingerprints, a photograph and a signature, with the passport and permit. We did not find a 2026 rule for foreigners, so ask the operator what it wants before you queue, and take your original passport and permit.

Mobile money

Mobile money is in very wide use. The regulator’s figures for June 2026, reported by TanzaniaInvest on 13 August 2026, give 117.0 million telecom subscriptions and 87.05 million mobile-money subscriptions. Mobile money shares were M-Pesa (Vodacom) 40.6%, Mixx by Yas 32.0% and Airtel Money 16.4%. By SIM, Vodacom had 33.0%, Yas 28.6%, Airtel 20.5% and Halotel 16.4%. Airtel is among the Indian companies the High Commission names. Keep your Indian number active for bank messages from home.

A bank account

We did not find a bank’s own current checklist for foreigners, and each bank sets its own rules. Bank of Baroda (Tanzania) Limited says it opened on 13 October 2004, has branches in Arusha (opened 10 August 2007), Mwanza (21 July 2014) and Dar es Salaam, where its Kariakoo branch moved to Upanga on 2 September 2025, and lists a remittance product, Rapid Fund to India, and an India desk on its site. The High Commission names Bank of India as the second Indian bank, and we did not find its own page. Ask your own bank in India for its rate and fee before the first salary transfer home. This site has no Tanzania send-money guide.

Money and cash

The High Commission’s factsheet gives US$1 = TSh 2,628 and Re 1 = TSh 27.84 for June 2026, and the Rio Times used 2,646 shillings to the dollar on 21 September 2026. The UK government’s advice says most banks in major cities have ATMs that accept foreign debit cards and issue shillings, that they sometimes break down or run out of money, and that widespread cash shortages were reported in the days of unrest after the 29 October 2025 election. Use ATMs inside bank branches.

Hospitals

The Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam is on Ocean Road (telephone +255 22 211 5151 or 53; emergency hotline +255 782 004 001). It says it is the only Joint Commission International accredited hospital in Tanzania, runs a 24-hour accident and emergency department, and belongs to the Aga Khan Health Service, which says it opened its first dispensary in Dar es Salaam in 1929. Shree Hindu Mandal’s hospital is at Hindu Mandal Street and India Street in Ilala (telephone +255 22 2114991 to 94), with a super-specialised polyclinic at Bahari Road in Kunduchi. India gave the hospital critical-care equipment on 10 February 2026 and 2.5 tonnes of medicines and equipment on 20 April 2026, according to the High Commission. Muhimbili National Hospital traces itself to the Sewa Haji Hospital of 1897. Outside Dar es Salaam, the UK government’s advice says medical facilities are limited.

Insurance

The Universal Health Insurance Act of 2023 requires residents to have a minimum level of health insurance, according to a WTW note of February 2024, and an insurer’s note (iPMI), which we read as a search result, says foreigners staying more than 30 days must be covered by the national scheme or private insurance. The sources disagree on the date it takes effect, and none says how it applies to work-permit holders, so ask the employer. The UK government’s advice recommends insurance that covers local treatment and medical evacuation.

Visitor insurance and entry screening

The Insurance (Inbound Travel Insurance) Regulations, Government Notice 256 of 2026, were published on 4 September 2026. Clyde & Co’s note of 16 September says every foreigner entering mainland Tanzania must hold a valid policy, USD 44 for up to 92 days, bought before travel or at the point of entry from the National Insurance Corporation or a partner insurer, and that a foreigner without one shall be denied entry. The UK government’s advice says the policy applies to all visitors except residents, and that Zanzibar is served by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, while Clyde & Co excludes residents of East African Community and SADC states. The sources differ on who is exempt, so ask your employer whether it applies if you arrive before your residence permit is issued.

On 17 October 2026 Tanzania’s Ministry of Health issued Travel Advisory No. 18: all travellers must complete an online health surveillance form before departure or on arrival and face temperature checks at airports, land borders and seaports, and higher-risk travellers are followed for 21 days. It followed the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a case in neighbouring Kenya. Tanzania had reported no confirmed case when the report we read was published on 18 October. The UK advice also notes mpox screening and lists dengue, malaria and cholera as risks.

Medicines

Bring a prescription and a doctor’s letter for regular medicines, and check the rules for controlled drugs before you pack. The UK government’s advice warns that products containing cannabidiol (CBD) are illegal in Tanzania, including skincare and e-cigarette refills.

The choices for an Indian family in Dar es Salaam are the CBSE school, the community schools of the Hindu Mandal, the Aga Khan school and the international schools. The Indian School is the only CBSE school in the country, the school says, so we have no CBSE option to name outside Dar es Salaam.

The Indian School

Indian School Dar es Salaam says it is the only school in Tanzania affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, with a history of more than four decades; it began as the Indian Study Circle and moved to its present campus in 2004. The academic session runs from April to March in three terms, fees are collected in advance, and 20% of tuition goes to a building fund. Admission to every class is subject to seats and an entrance test, except nursery (Balvatika-I), and a child must be three by 31 May to enter nursery. Children of Indian expatriates can be admitted at any time in the session, within CBSE’s rules for Classes IX to XII, and a transfer certificate is needed for every class above nursery. The school reports that all 60 pupils who appeared for Class X and all 33 for Class XII passed in 2026. The 2026–27 fee schedule is a scanned PDF on the school’s site that we could not read, so ask the school. A new library opened on 2 October 2026, according to the High Commission.

Shree Hindu Mandal schools

The Hindu Mandal’s schools are co-educational, English-medium schools from nursery to secondary, with admission forms and fees for 2026 on its site, and the campus is on New City Road in Mikocheni. The site speaks of A-Level students, and we did not confirm which examination boards the schools use.

Aga Khan Mzizima Secondary School

The Aga Khan Mzizima Secondary School in Dar es Salaam is an IB World School run by Aga Khan Education Services. Its profile says it offers the IB Diploma, with IGCSE and the national NECTA curriculum also available. The school reports that its class of 2022 averaged 34.8 points against a global average of 32, which is a school-published claim.

International School of Tanganyika

The International School of Tanganyika offers the IB Primary, Middle Years and Diploma programmes. Its page of 2026–27 tuition lists annual fees in shillings: TSh 49,025,000 for early childhood, 71,815,000 for kindergarten to Grade 5, 83,210,000 for Grades 6 to 8, 88,501,000 for Grades 9 and 10 and 101,760,000 for Grades 11 and 12. At the High Commission factsheet’s June 2026 rate of TSh 2,628, that is about USD 18,700 in early childhood, USD 27,300 in primary and USD 38,700 in the Diploma years. As we read the page, new students also pay an annual capital fee of TSh 3.18 million, a tuition deposit of TSh 2.65 million and a one-off building fee of TSh 26.5 million, which for the earlier grades can be paid in three instalments. Check the school’s page before you budget.

Classes, study in India and the cultural centre

The Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, set up under ICCR in December 2010, offers classes in yoga, vocal music, tabla and Hindi. The temples and community halls run children’s classes that are not published. For study in India, the High Commission’s site lists direct admission of students abroad and scholarships. India offers Tanzania 1,000 ITEC places and 85 ICCR scholarships a year, with ICCR slots rising to 135 in 2026–27.

Applying

Ask for the full fee schedule, including one-off levies, and apply early. Keep your child’s transfer certificate and recent reports from India attested, and ask whether the school will hold a place until the dependants’ permits are issued.

Dar es Salaam

The High Commission of India is on Shaaban Robert Street, Plot 213/51, P.O. Box 2684, Dar es Salaam. The main telephone numbers are +255 22 2113094 and 2113096, the consular number is +255 22 2113079, and the emergency number, for genuine emergencies only, is +255 783 344 840. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30, with lunch from 13:30 to 14:00; consular hours are 09:30 to 11:30 for submitting applications and 16:00 to 16:30 for delivery of passports and other documents. Since 15 June 2024 the consular wing is also open at weekends and on public holidays from 14:00 to 16:00 for genuine emergencies only, such as an emergency certificate for same-day travel; call the emergency number first. Appointments are booked on the mission’s site up to four weeks ahead.

Passport applications are made on the passport portal for missions, choosing TANZANIA – Dar-es-Salaam, printed and submitted with documents and the fee. Applicants living in Tanzania must apply at the High Commission, and all applicants, including minors and newborn babies, must come in person. Only ICAO-compliant photographs have been accepted since 1 September 2025. The fee sheet in force from 1 July 2026 includes USD 2 for the Indian Community Welfare Fund.

The sheet of 1 April 2026 for other services lists, in shillings, attestation of civil or general documents at 35,000, affidavits and powers of attorney at 60,000, renunciation of Indian citizenship at 220,000 and the OCI card at 735,000. The sheet does not label its currency, and we infer shillings from its other lines.

Registering

Indian nationals living in Tanzania are asked to register with the High Commission online, and to tell it when they finally leave. The High Commission’s advisories for Indians include one against employers holding passports and the passport-photograph rule. Grievances can be raised on the MADAD portal.

Zanzibar

The Consulate General of India at 8 Migombani is described in the Zanzibar section. Its pages and the High Commission’s give different photograph sizes (3.5 cm square at Zanzibar and 2 by 2 inches at Dar es Salaam), so ask the mission you apply to. Neither website names an area it serves, and the two list different Consuls General, so we name no officials.

OCI for Tanzanian citizens of Indian origin

Tanzania does not allow dual citizenship, so a Tanzanian citizen of Indian origin cannot hold an Indian passport, and OCI is the route. The High Commission’s page lists who may register as an Overseas Citizen of India: a foreign national who was an Indian citizen on or after the commencement of the Constitution, or eligible to become one then, or who belonged to a territory that became part of India after 15 August 1947, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with their minor children and some foreign-origin spouses. No person who is or has been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh is eligible. Application is on ociservices.gov.in followed by a printed application and self-attested documents at the High Commission, and holders of old hand-written PIO cards must exchange them for machine-readable OCI cards. The page also describes simplified rules for updating the card when a new passport is issued.

For Tanzanian-Indian families the hard part is the paperwork: ask relatives who kept the family’s documents, and check which ancestors lived in what is now Pakistan or Bangladesh before you pay. The mission’s checklist PDF lists the documents.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s advice for Tanzania, updated on 20 October 2026 and still current on 23 October, is the dated, reputable source we found. It advises against all but essential travel only within 20 km of the border with Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, in the Mtwara region, because of attacks by groups linked to Islamic extremism. Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Mwanza and Dodoma are not in that area. It also cautions about armed robbery in the Burundi border area and Kigoma region.

The October 2025 election

A general election was held on 29 October 2025. The High Commission’s factsheet says President Samia Suluhu Hassan was inaugurated for a second term on 3 November 2025 with 97.66% of the vote, and that the 13th Parliament met on 11 November without a recognised opposition bloc. The UK advice says protests and the security response led to deaths and injuries in many areas of the mainland. A commission appointed by the President reported on 23 April 2026 that at least 518 people were killed, Reuters reported, and said the figure could rise; the main opposition party rejected the report and says thousands died, and the UN human rights office had estimated hundreds. The government said many allegations rested on information that had not been verified. We use no single figure because the sources disagree.

For a newcomer the points to know are practical. The authorities have previously limited internet access during and after protests. The UK advice says there have been calls on social media for demonstrations on public holidays and on the first anniversary on 29 October, that further demonstrations and violent responses are possible, that it is illegal to take or share photographs or video of protests and violence, that security services may ask to check phones, and that there has been an increase in anti-foreigner rhetoric. Stay away from demonstrations and large crowds, keep a note of key phone numbers in case the internet is cut, and do not post about politics. We found no report that the violence targeted Indians or Asians, and the High Commission’s site had no advisory about it on 22 October.

Crime

The UK advice reports armed robbery throughout the country, with tourists and residents targeted in Dar es Salaam in the city centre, in the Masaki and Oysterbay peninsula, particularly at Coco Beach, and along Toure Drive, and in Zanzibar in Stone Town, at hotels and on beaches. Bag snatching from cars and motorbikes is common. “Express kidnapping” has happened in Dar es Salaam: people have been robbed and forced to withdraw cash from ATMs after being befriended by strangers or taking unlicensed taxis. It advises against walking alone at night, carrying large sums or displaying valuables, and says to carry a copy of your passport, and your work permit if you have one, because immigration officials or police can ask at any time.

Terrorism

The advice says attacks cannot be ruled out and could be indiscriminate, including at places of worship, transport hubs, hotels and restaurants. Al-Shabaab is thought to be active, and attacks by IS-Mozambique, based in Cabo Delgado, are possible near the border. At a temple or a community hall, expect guards and bag checks.

Law and conduct

Dress modestly, and in Zanzibar expect fines for what the authorities regard as inappropriate clothing. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal. Drug laws are strict and extend to some CBD products. Plastic bags are banned. Dial 112 for ambulance, fire or police.

Scams

Do not pay for a permit, a job or a flat that you have not seen. The High Commission’s advisories warn of promises of better jobs abroad that left Indians stranded, and of employers keeping passports.

The source for each place is named, and the table says where only one source exists, such as a directory or a Wikipedia list. Opening times change, so call before a first visit. This site has no Tanzania temples page, so none is linked.

Notes

The BAPS announcement says the new mandir stands on the very site of the first one, and a 2025 BAPS note that we read as a search result says nearly all Hindu temples in Dar es Salaam stand close to one another. Wikipedia says a Hindu council helps organise social and cultural activities, and a BAPS note names its president, but we found no website for it. Ask each place which programmes are open to visitors; an evening aarti is an easy first visit. Dress modestly and take your shoes off, and cover your head in a gurdwara. The UK advice names places of worship among possible targets, so do not be surprised by security checks.

Diwali is kept in Tanzania’s temples and homes, above all in Dar es Salaam. Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November, a weekend day, with Dhanteras on Friday 6 November, Choti Diwali on Saturday 7 November, Govardhan Puja and Annakut on Monday 9 November and Bhai Dooj on Tuesday 10 November. Families light lamps on the evening of the Sunday. The High Commission closes for Diwali on 8 November and for Guru Nanak’s Birthday on Tuesday 24 November, according to its 2026 holiday list. Diwali is not a public holiday in Tanzania: it is not on the schedule of the Public Holidays Act, which the President may add to by proclamation. By 23 October we had found no 2026 programme from the BAPS and Swaminarayan mandirs, the Sanatan Dharma Sabha, ISKCON or the Hindu Mandal, and the High Commission’s website listed no Diwali event, so ask them nearer the date. The Diwali in Tanzania page and the Diwali in Dar es Salaam page carry any 2026 programme as it is announced.

Fireworks

Fireworks need official permission. On 31 December 2025 the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner told residents not to set them off without authorisation from the relevant authorities, as the government barred fireworks and tyre-burning for that New Year, according to a report on AllAfrica. We found no Diwali-specific notice, so homes and temples are lit with diyas and lamps. Ask your temple or hall what it is organising.

The rest of the year

The High Commission marks the International Day of Yoga on 21 June in dozens of towns, and organised the first Indian Film Festival in Tanzania at Century Cinemax, Vijana Mall, on 24 and 25 January 2026. The Dar es Salaam Jain Sangh goes to Zanzibar every Easter for the Dhaja and Poojan Mahotsav. The Tanzania events page and the Dar es Salaam events page list Indian events as organisers post them.

Most day-to-day information in the community runs on WhatsApp groups organised by samaj, temple, language, school, estate and workplace: which clinic takes your insurance, which agent handles permits, whether the road is open. They are fast and generous. But you need to know someone to get the link, links circulate for months after a group has died, every member can usually see your phone number, and groups are where scams spread: the “visa provided, pay the processing fee” job, the flat that needs a deposit “today”, and the agent who promises an onward job and leaves you stranded, which the High Commission has warned about.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community’s app and website have groups, events, a directory and a way to ask questions. The local groups for the country are on the Tanzania groups page, the events are on the Tanzania events page, and the Tanzania directory lists the businesses on the site; a business can add itself. Groups in the app are moderated and tied to a place, Ask lets members put a question to people who have done it, and an anonymous mode exists for questions you would rather not attach to your name, such as a permit or a tax query.

Your first week, practically

1. Open the Tanzania groups, join the one for your town and read before you post; the paperwork answers are often there already.
2. Go to one event in your first fortnight, such as an aarti or a community programme, and say who you are.
3. Say in your question whether you are an Indian national on a permit, a dependant, a visitor or a Tanzanian citizen of Indian origin, because the answers differ for permits, OCI, tax and schools.
4. Never send a deposit, a passport scan or a fee to someone you met in a group without checking who they are, and never hand your passport to an employer or agent.
5. When you have found your doctor, your school and your grocer, leave an answer for the next person from Pune, Ahmedabad or Hyderabad. This guide links a city page only for Dar es Salaam, events and Diwali, so for Zanzibar, Arusha and Mwanza start from the country pages, and if the group you need is missing, start it.

The groups near you are listed below.