Dar secures $272m AfDB loan for new airport

Tanzania has secured a $272 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to build a new international airport at its administrative capital Dodoma, part of a programme to expand the East African nation’s infrastructure.

The airport will be built in Msalato, 12 km (7 miles) from Dodoma and will take four years to build, the Abidjan-based lender said in a statement late on Thursday.

The airport will have a capacity to handle 1 million passengers annually, though the city has a population of just over 2 million people, AfDB said.

In October, the government said it had finished moving all its administrative functions to Dodoma from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.