Moshi, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

🇹🇿 Moshi is a municipality and the capital of Kilimanjaro region in the north eastern Tanzania. The municipality is situated on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano that is the highest mountain in Africa. The name Moshi has been reported to refer to the smoke that emanates from the nearby mountain. The municipality covers about 59 square km and is the smallest municipality in Tanzania by area.

History and administration Germany established a military camp in Moshi (Neu-Moschi) in August 1893. The northern line railroad reached Moshi in 1912.

Moshi attained the status of a town in 1956. In 1988, it became a municipality under Tanzanian law, but as of 31 October 2014, the process for submitting its application to become a city was in its final stages. Moshi is administratively divided into 21 wards and then subdivided into 60 hamlets.

Economy As the capital of the region, it is the centre of government activities, trade, finance, and tourism. In the first half of the 20th century, Moshi was traditionally an important railway town, centre of banana agriculture, and commercial producer of pyrethrum.

Tourist Industry Moshi is one of tourism centres in the northern safari circuit of Tanzania. The closest tourism spots include Kilimanjaro National Park, Mkomazi National Park, Lake Jipe, and Lake Chala. There are also several waterfalls, natural springs, and tropical forests. Tours can also be arranged from Moshi to other areas such as Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Arusha National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, and Tarangire National Park. The city has several hotels and recreation centers.

There is annual fair, KiliFair, organized to be an international tourism & industry fair, promoting and presenting companies based in the Kilimanjaro region. The fair has the character of a business networking event for the tourism industry, in combination with a community fair to attract local people, families & expats. Recently, Karibu Fair (TATO) and Kilifair, both well-known tourism fairs decided to join into one and create by far the largest and most important Tourism Trade Fair in East Africa. The newly formed “Karibu/KiliFair” is expecting to host 350+ exhibitors from East and Central Africa, 300+ international hosted and semi-hosted buyers, as well as approximately 4,000 trade visitors during the days of the fair.

The fair will annually alternate between Moshi and Arusha starting 2018 event. • Timing: At the beginning of June every year (from 2015). • Venue(s): Ushirika Stadium in Moshi and Friedkin Recreation Center – TGT in Arusha

Manufacturing Moshi is the home to one of the three Coca-Cola bottlers in Tanzania, Bonite Botters Ltd. Serengeti Breweries, an East African Breweries company, also has a manufacturing plant in Moshi. Just south of the city, there is a sugar production facility by TPC Ltd which owns one of the largest and oldest sugar cane plantation in the country. There are several small and medium scale manufacturing facilities in dairy and food packaging sector.

Agriculture Moshi's lower altitude and drier climate mean that the main crops grown on the higher slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, coffee and bananas, do not thrive there. The surrounding areas in Moshi district are known for extensive farms of maize and beans, grown once per year during the long rainy season (known as "masika" in Kiswahili). In addition, the Tanganyika Planting Company operates a very large sugar cane plantation and company town 20 km (12 mi) south of Moshi.

Roman Catholic missionaries introduced Arabica coffee cultivation to the Moshi region in 1893. The Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union was established in 1929 by the district commissioner, Charles Cecil Farquharson Dundas. Its purpose was to enable Chagga coffee growers to compete on equal terms in world markets with European growers. KNCU collects coffee from 96 village societies, representing over 150,000 small-scale farmers. KNCU handles between 50 and 70 percent of the coffee grown in the area and trades over 5,250 tons of Arabica coffee, or about 11 percent of national production.

Education Moshi hosts a number of higher education facilities. Those include the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (KCMCo), the Stefano Moshi Memorial University College (SMMUCo), the Mwenge Catholic University (MWECAU), the Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU), the College of African Wildlife Management (CAWM), the Kilimanjaro School of Pharmacy (KSP), and the Tanzania Training Centre for Orthopaedic Technologists (TATCOT). • KCMCo is a campus of Tumaini University. It was started in 1997 and offers a number of medical courses. The college is located within the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre complex, about 6 km (3.7 miles) from Moshi. • SMMUCo is also a campus of Tumaini University. It was developed from the Masoka Management Training Institute and the Mwika Lutheran Bible College. It belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania - Northern Diocese, and it is a multi-campus university college. Currently, SMMUCo has campuses in Masoka, Mwika and Moshi, with future campuses planned for Machame, Siha, and Karatu. • MWECAU formerly a constituent college of the Saint Augustine University of Tanzania. MWECAU is located 10 km (6.2 miles) north of Moshi. • Since May 2004, the Moshi Co-operative University has been a constituent college of the Sokoine University of Agriculture. Formerly known as the Ushirika College, it is the oldest training institution in Tanzania and is located along Sokoine Road in Moshi. Moshi Co-operative University has accumulated 43 years' experience in the fields of co-operative accounting, co-operative management and rural development has of recently turned into other expertise in accounting, management, marketing, auditing and cooperative development employed in different institutions within and outside Tanzania. Moshi Co-operative University grew from a college enrolling only 150 students, conducting tailored courses, to a university college with a capacity of 1500 students. • CAWM is commonly known as Mweka College. It was established in 1963 following the Arusha Manifesto (1961) as a pioneer institution for the training of African wildlife managers. The majority of the CAWM's students come from the SADC region, although the College opens its doors to all students with an interest in African Wildlife Management. • KSP is owned by the Saint Luke Foundation, a registered trust founded to provide broad spectrum services to an African population that faces serious deficiencies in pharmaceutical and health systems. KSP is currently the only pharmacy school providing competence based training for different levels of pharmaceuticals cadres to a diploma level. • The Tanzania Training Centre for Orthopaedic Technologists (TATCOT) was founded in Moshi with the material, financial and human resource support of the governments of Tanzania and the Federal Republic of Germany in June 1981. TATCOT is a supra-regional training centre providing courses in the field of orthopaedic technology in Africa and enrols students from all English speaking African countries as well as other interested countries. The reason for establishing these courses was to educate the professionals who are required to provide technical services to people with amputations and other neuromuscular disorders such as poliomyelitis, paralysis, cerebral palsy, clubfoot and trauma. In order to do this the professionals are provided with the knowledge and skills to provide prostheses, orthoses, wheelchairs and supportive seating to people with disabilities.

Roads Moshi is connected to other cities in Tanzania by Tanroads highway T2. Several bus companies operate intercity routes from Moshi. There are also local buses for the intracity travel.

Air Kilimanjaro International Airport, which is operated by the Kilimanjaro Airport Development Company and located in Hai District approximately 40 km along the Moshi-Arusha Highway. There is also a small airport nearby (Moshi Airport) approximately 5 km from the city center. The airport serves mostly chartered and private flights.

Rail Tanga Line passes through Moshi. The line carries cargo mostly cement from Tanga to Moshi and Arusha. There is regular passenger service to Arusha and Dar Es Salaam.