Dodoma. The Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organisation (TIRDO) is set to establish a new Energy and Minerals Laboratory in Njombe Region in a move aimed at bringing services closer to resource-rich and production areas.
This was announced on Thursday, May 22, 2026, in Parliament in Dodoma by the Minister for Industry and Trade, Judith Kapinga, while presenting the ministry’s budget estimates for the 2025/26 financial year.
Kapinga said the facility will serve the Southern Highlands regions, including Ruvuma, Mbeya and Rukwa, and will conduct quality testing for coal, chemicals, minerals, as well as renewable energy sources such as biomass and alternative charcoal.
She said procurement of a contractor to supply and install modern equipment had already been completed, alongside arrangements for training technical experts who will operate the laboratory.
“The completion of this laboratory will stimulate an industrial economy anchored on clean and environmentally friendly energy,” Kapinga said.
The Minister further noted that TIRDO is also in the process of obtaining accreditation for its laboratories in environmental science, chemistry, coal, oil and gas, in order to enhance service quality and credibility.
In a related development, Kapinga said the government, through the Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO), has successfully transferred eight technologies for agro-processing and manufacturing.
The technologies include machines for producing alternative charcoal, refining sunflower oil, fish feed production, cashew nut processing, coconut oil extraction, and stone grinding for mineral processing.
She added that SIDO, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), has also developed three alternative charcoal production machines and introduced new Japanese technologies in Ifakara, Kahama and Mwanjelwa.
TIRDO has also continued with nationwide industrial assessments aimed at identifying investment opportunities across regions.
According to Kapinga, the exercise is designed to map the number of industries, employment levels, production capacity, technologies in use, and potential investment areas to boost industrial development and value addition.
So far, the assessment has been conducted in two additional regions, bringing the total covered to nine, namely Pwani, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Arusha, Manyara, Mwanza and Shinyanga.
She said all collected data has been compiled into a national industrial database, which shows that by April 2026, Tanzania had a total of 25,650 registered industries.
Of these, 482 are large-scale industries, 625 medium, 8,980 small, and 15,563 micro industries.
