Tanzania inaugurates 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere hydropower project
Tanzania has inaugurated the 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Rufiji River, the country’s largest hydropower project. The $2.9 billion project was built over five years by an Egyptian consortium comprising Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, representing President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, attended the inauguration on August 22, 2026. The project is expected to strengthen Tanzania’s power supply, support economic development, regulate water flows and reduce flood risks.
Power infrastructure
The plant has nine turbines of 235 MW each, providing total generation capacity of 2,115 MW. Electricity will be transmitted through a 400-kilovolt switchyard and integrated into Tanzania’s national grid through the Shalenzi 1 and Shalenzi 2 interconnection circuits.
The main dam is 1,036 metres long and 131 metres high. It creates a reservoir with a capacity of approximately 34 billion cubic metres and has seven water outlets for controlling and releasing water flows.
Egyptian role
About 1,700 Egyptian engineers and technicians participated in construction as part of a workforce of approximately 12,000 people.
Madbouly said the project “reflects the Tanzian will and extensive Egyptian expertise” and demonstrated the ability of Egyptian companies to execute major projects internationally, particularly in Africa.
He also said the project’s completion “refutes previous claims that Egypt opposes development in Nile Basin countries,” adding that Cairo supports development as long as it does not harm the interests of downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.
The project was inaugurated amid continuing differences between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Negotiations between the three countries resumed in 2023 after nearly three years of suspension but stalled again the following year.
The featured photograph is for representation only.
