Bagamoyo Port
A proposed $10 billion deep-water port on Tanzania's coast, first announced in 2013 and, as of 20 September 2026, not independently confirmed to be under construction.
- Project
- Bagamoyo deep-water port, Pwani Region, Tanzania. Also called Mbegani deep-sea port in investment literature.
- First announced
- 2013, at a ceremony witnessed by presidents Kikwete and Xi Jinping
- Headline cost
- $10 billion — though sources published eight days apart give $2.1 billion and $10 billion for the same deal, and a third gives $11 billion
- Berths planned
- 28 (TPA, December 2025) or 38 (the same official, July 2026)
- Latest agreement
- Memorandum of understanding with Africa Global Logistics, an MSC subsidiary, 6 December 2025 — for the first three berths
- Start dates announced
- Six since 2015. All six are now in the past.
- Construction at the port
- Not independently confirmed. Checked 20 September 2026.
Between 2013 and 2026 this project has been announced, suspended, revived, reported sold, denied three times in twelve days, and re-signed with a fourth set of backers. What has actually been finished in thirteen years is a groundbreaking ceremony and a compensation programme for the people who lost their land to it.
That is not a reason to ignore it. The December 2025 agreement is with Africa Global Logistics — the first counterparty in the project's history that operates ports rather than financing them, which is why the project became worth tracking again. But an agreement is not a berth, and a memorandum of understanding is the same instrument the ports authority described ten months earlier as a way to open discussions.
This site keeps that distinction on every line. Each claim carries a date and one of four labels — confirmed, announced, denied, unverified — and links to the source that supports it. When nothing has happened, it says so, with the date it was checked. Press coverage of Bagamoyo returns only when there is a new announcement and rarely follows up on whether the last one happened; the gap between those two things is the whole subject here.
Where to start
- The trackerTwenty dated claims in one filterable table — show only what the ports authority has denied, or only what is still unverified. Counters recompute against today.
- The chronology, 2013–presentThirteen years in four announcement cycles, with every disputed figure set side by side. The page that explains everything else here.
- Construction statusA short, dated answer to “is anything happening right now”, reviewed more often than the chronology.
- The Special Economic ZoneThe 9,800-hectare industrial zone beside the port — administered separately, and the one part of the project with investors confirmed on the ground.
- Bagamoyo townThe town the port is named after: a 13th-century trading settlement and German East Africa's first capital, centuries older than the project.
What this site is not. It is not a travel guide, not an investment prospectus, and not affiliated with anyone building or financing the port. It does not predict whether Bagamoyo will be built. It records what was claimed, by whom, on what date, and whether anyone has confirmed it since.
Last checked: 20 September 2026. Every page carries its own review date.