by Ben Taylor
Tundu Lissu announces presidential bid for 2025
Tundu Lissu, the vice chair of the opposition party Chadema, has announced that he has informed his party about his intention to run for the presidency of the United Republic of Tanzania through his party. He was also the party’s presidential candidate in 2020.
“I have indicated my intention as a presidential aspirant through my party officially,” Lissu explained in an online interview in August.
In 2020, Tundu Lissu was a presidential candidate representing Chadema, competing against the late President John Magufuli. In that election, which many described as the most flawed election in Tanzania’s history, Lissu received 1,933,271 votes, while President Magufuli was declared the winner with 12,516,252 votes.
Lissu’s announcement comes after various signs suggest some tension with the party, between him and the party chair, Freeman Mbowe. This rift was reportedly heightened during Chadema’s recent internal party elections, where Lissu said that there was a lot of corruption fuelled by money coming from the ruling party, CCM.
Taxing cryptocurrency
In the 2024/25 budget, Tanzania has announced a 3% tax on digital assets transactions. The new measure defines digital assets as anything of value that is intangible, including cryptocurrencies, token codes, and numbers held in digital form generated through cryptographic or other means.
The Act specifically targets non-resident individuals or entities that own platforms or facilitate the exchange or transfer of digital assets. This means the law will require crypto exchange sites and brokers to register in Tanzania’s tax system and withhold a tax rate of 3% when making payments to a resident as a result of transfer or exchange.
While the global market value of cryptocurrency stands at an estimated USD $2.46 trillion (2.2% of global GDP), Tanzania does not yet have a specific legal framework for digital assets. However, in 2019, the Bank of Tanzania issued a public notice against the use or trading of cryptocurrency in the country.
Nevertheless, various reports indicate that a significant number of Tanzanians own cryptocurrencies. One report by a Singaporean cryptocurrency research firm, Triple A, estimates that about 2.3 million Tanzanians own cryptocurrency. A separate survey within Tanzania, conducted by Financial Sector Deepening Tanzania (FSDT), found that 1.7% of Tanzanian adults – equivalent to over 580,000 people – have invested in cryptocurrencies.