Tanzania’s AfCFTA Certificate-of-Origin Surge: What It Means for Exporters

Tanzania issued 392 certificates of origin under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by June 2025 — the third-highest count of any country on the continent, and the leader within East Africa. By March 2026, continental AfCFTA certificate issuance passed 10,000 total. If you export from Tanzania and haven’t looked into whether AfCFTA preferential access applies to your product and destination, this is the moment to check — most generic export guides haven’t caught up to how fast this scheme is actually moving.

What a certificate of origin under AfCFTA actually does

A certificate of origin certifies that your goods qualify as originating in Tanzania (or meet AfCFTA’s rules-of-origin thresholds for regional content) — which, once issued, allows your buyer in another AfCFTA member state to import your goods at preferential (reduced or zero) tariff rates instead of standard most-favoured-nation duty. For a Tanzanian exporter selling into other African markets, that preferential rate is the entire commercial point of engaging with AfCFTA rather than simply shipping under standard terms.

Why the growth number matters

Tanzanian exports to Africa reached approximately US$3.95 billion in 2024. AfCFTA certificate issuance data suggests an increasing share of that trade is moving through the preferential-tariff mechanism rather than standard duty channels — which is a meaningful, currently-developing shift, not a static policy that’s been fully priced into how most exporters plan.

What to actually do

Certificates of origin under AfCFTA are processed through Tanzania’s designated issuing authorities, working from the same institutional base as other certificate-of-origin schemes (EAC, SADC, AGOA, EU) documented on TanTrade’s trade portal. If you’re exporting to another African market and haven’t confirmed whether your product qualifies under AfCFTA’s rules of origin, that’s worth a direct conversation with TanTrade or your clearing and forwarding agent — the tariff difference can be substantial, and the certificate process itself is not new or experimental at this point; it’s a scaling, increasingly mainstream mechanism.