Did you know that the Magufuli Bridge, formerly Kigongo–Busisi Bridge, but renamed in honor of former Tanzania President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (29 Oct. 1959 – 17 Mar. 2021), is the longest bridge in East Africa and the sixth-longest on the African continent?

While most African countries resort to borrowing to build infrastructures, the government of Tanzania, through the completed and commissioned Magufuli Bridge, has demonstrated that Africans can look within for sourcing of funds to develop the continent's infrastructures thereby avoiding the creation of external debts and putting pressure on its foreign reserves.

The Kigongo–Busisi Bridge, officially the John Pombe Magufuli Bridge, is a road bridge in Tanzania, constructed between December 2019 and December 2024, by China Civil Engineering Construction Group (CCECG) and China Railway 15th Bureau (CR15B), fully financed by the Tanzanian government, at the cost of approximately $300 million. The bridge is part of the country’s ongoing investment in infrastructure development.

The Magufuli Bridge is reported to be the longest bridge in East Africa and the sixth-longest on the African continent. The bridge forms a part of the Tanzanian Trunk Road T4. As part of this road infrastructure project, a 35-kilometre (22 mi) tarmacked road will be constructed to link the eastern end of the bridge to the city of Mwanza.

Before the construction of the bridge, there was no road link between Kigongo and Busisi. A ferry was the only means of connection between the two sides. The ferry takes 35 minutes to travel the distance, but pre-boarding, boarding, travel, and disembarking can last as long as three hours. An average of 1,600 automobiles cross the Gulf of Mwanza using the ferry every 24 hours.

On its construction which was launched in December 2019 by President Magufuli before his death in 2021, the government of Tanzania contracted a consortium of two Chinese state-owned engineering and construction companies to design and build the transport infrastructure project. The two firms: CCECC, and CR15B.

At the start of construction, the contract price was reported as TSh:699 billion, fully funded by the Tanzanian government, with completion initially planned for 2023. In July 2021, the progress of works was reported at 27 percent. At that time, the contract price was reported as US$308.88 million. The new completion date was reported as 2024.

As of July 2022, a total of 776 jobs had been created by the project, of which 720 jobs (92.8 percent) were filled by Tanzanians and 56 jobs (7.2 percent) were taken up by non-Tanzanians. As of September 2024, completion was reported as 93 percent with commercial commissioning expected in December 2024.

In June 2025, the completed bridge was commercially commissioned by the President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan. The bridge spans 3.2 kilometres (2.0 miles) across the Gulf of Mwanza, linking the areas of Kigongo in the Mwanza Region and Busisi in the Geita Region, cutting crossing time from 95 minutes by ferry to four minutes by automobile. At completion this is expected to increase to 10,200 every 24 hours, according to the Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS).

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