Zanzibar is preparing for a major economic shift. Best known as an East African tourist destination with its spice farms, clear waters and pristine beaches, Zanzibar now hopes to stake its economic future on offshore oil and gas with a welcome for big investors, President Hussein Ali Mwinyi told Newsweek in an exclusive interview.

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania and lies 20 miles off the mainland. It runs many of its own affairs and has its own president. Mwinyi, who was re-elected for a second five-year term in November, framed this as a defining moment.

“I am therefore inviting serious investors to participate in exploring oil and gas reserves in Zanzibar,” the president said, laying out a path that could shift not only the island’s economy but its long-term geopolitic

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