Mbeya Region Website

The City is well linked to the Capital City (Dar-es-Salaam) by Tanzania - Zambia Highway, (TANZAM) which also gives the area access to countries in the Southern part of Africa such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola and South Africa.

The highway to the nearby regions of Iringa and Ruvuma are all Tarmac Roads. The main road connecting Mbeya and Rukwa region is not Tarmac but it is well maintained and passable throughout the year.

The Tanzania - Zambia Railway (TAZARA) passes through the City and serves the area in the same way as the TANZAM highway as mentioned above. The City is the Southern Terminal of the Railway line connecting to Tunduma and Nakonde in Tanzania and Zambia Countries. The Dar es salaam-Mbeya Railway also links Mbeya with Kampirimposhi Zambia. This facilitates transportation of bulk goods and people to various parts of Tanzania and neighboring countries, like Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda and DRC.

There is an Airstrip, which serves small aircrafts, but there is no regular air transport linking the City to the outside Regions, despite the existing high demand for such service. However, a modern International Airport is under construction at Songwe area, a few kilometers outside the City.

There are both Public and Private Telecommunication services in the City, which are functioning quite well. Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL) is the leading daily telecommunication service provider to the majority of the Mbeya residents. There are other private service providers like ZANTEL, VODACOM, ZAIN and TIGO. Telecommunication connections are satisfactory and the City enjoys the most recent products of communication in the form of mobile phones and Internet cafes.

The City operates a local Radio and Television Station (MTV), which compliment services provided both by the Government and Private sectors and other Radio Service providers like Radio Free Africa, Radio One, ITV, TBC1 and Star TV. 

There exists 7 Commercial banks branches and a Bank of Tanzania (BOT) branch in the City, the commercial banks existing are the National Bank of Commerce (NBC), National Microfinance Bank (NMB), Exim Bank, StanBic Bank, Barclays Bank, Postal bank and CRDB Bank which offer financial services .Automated Teller Machine services are also available for all major credit cards like Visa and for normal maestro banking cards. The ATM’s are working 24 hours. Other business services existing in the City are Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Mbeya branch.

Mbeya City is among the Zonal exhibition centre for agricultural fairs in the country. It has a big exhibition ground which is used once per year in every August. This situation shows that the areas can be used even more than once. The City also offers conference services for small audience. The Southern highlands zone lacks an international conference centre for large audience. This can be another area for investment. In this case, the International conference centre could be used for local and International meetings.

Roads