Tanzania's Zanzibar Advances 8 Billion Shilling Seaweed Processing Plant Construction

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 7, new supplementary financing arrangements were added to the Zanzibar Seaweed Company (ZASCO) seaweed processing project. NMB Bank will provide loans and technical training to local seaweed farmers partnering with ZASCO, ensuring a stable supply of raw materials for the seaweed processing plant currently under construction on Pemba Island. The plant, with an investment of approximately 8 billion Tanzanian shillings, is now in its construction phase.

The project is being advanced by ZASCO, with the plant located on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar Archipelago. Previously published engineering plans show that the project is designed with a seaweed processing capacity of approximately 32,000 tons, primarily handling centralized processing of raw seaweed and value-added treatment of products. ZASCO is an enterprise owned by the Zanzibar government, jointly held by the Zanzibar Social Security Fund, port authorities, insurance institutions, and the national trading agency.

The focus of this NMB Bank partnership lies in the upstream supply system. The bank will provide production loans to small-scale seaweed farmers who join the ZASCO supply system, along with financial and technical training, enabling farmers to expand seaweed output and meet the raw material demand after the processing plant commences operations. The project thus forms a supply chain arrangement of "farmer financing—seaweed production—raw material procurement—factory processing."

According to official ZASCO information, the company currently deals in seaweed products such as Eucheuma Spinosum, Eucheuma Cottonii, and Ulva Lactuca, and maintains business operations in Pemba. As construction of the processing plant progresses, the company's operations will extend from raw material procurement and primary processing to industrialized processing.