Mwanza Region

Mwanza controls Tanzania's share of Lake Victoria—the world's second-largest freshwater lake providing 40% of the lake's 500,000 annual tonnes of fish. The Nile perch and tilapia trade employs 8,000 directly and 300,000 indirectly, supporting 3 million residents across the Lake Zone. The region hosts one of Tanzania's three gold smelters and serves as gateway to the Lake Victoria Goldfields, where Perseus Mining acquired OreCorp's Nyanzaga project for $276 million in 2024. The Standard Gauge Railway Mwanza branch (under construction since 2021) will connect this fishing-mining hybrid to the national network.