Tanzania’s population has jumped more than 37% in a decade to 61.7 million, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Monday as she unveiled the results of the national census.
The population of the East African country has risen from 44.9 million in 2012 to more than 60 million, according to the census taken earlier this year, with Hassan saying the figures reflected an annual increase of 3.2% .
With a larger population, more efficiency is needed to match “current challenges and current numbers,” the president said.
“Such a population may not be a big problem for a huge country like ours,” the president said, “but it is a burden when it comes to allocating resources and providing social services”.
Therefore, she urged me to start preparing development projects.
“We must start preparing development projects for these people and make the necessary reforms in our policies.”
So far, 2 African cities are home to more than 10 million people. Namely Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lagos in Nigeria.
Tanzania’s economic hub, Dar es Salaam, is expected to become a megacity by 2050. That same year, the population is expected to reach 151.2 million.