Samia Suluhu Hassan

Samia Suluhu Hassan was born on 27 January 1960 at Makunduchi, in the south of Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar.

She studied public administration at what is now Mzumbe University, finishing in 1986, took a postgraduate diploma in economics at the University of Manchester in the early 1990s, and completed a master's degree in community economic development in 2015.

She began work as an office clerk, became a development officer in the Zanzibar government in 1988, and later managed a project for the World Food Programme.

Samia entered politics in 2000, when she became a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives and a minister in Zanzibar's government, responsible first for youth employment, women and children and, from 2005, for tourism, trade and investment.

In 2010 she was elected to the union parliament as member for Makunduchi, and joined the cabinet as minister of state for union affairs in the vice-president's office. In 2014 she was vice-chair of the Constituent Assembly that drafted a proposed new constitution.

In 2015 she was John Magufuli's running mate, and on 5 November 2015 she became Tanzania's first woman vice-president.

When President Magufuli died in office, the constitution made the vice-president his successor. Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in on 19 March 2021, the sixth president of Tanzania and the first woman to hold the office.

Her government has completed the large projects begun before her, among them the first sections of the Standard Gauge Railway and the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project. After the general election of 29 October 2025 she was sworn in for a second term on 3 November 2025. Her presidency so far is covered on the multi-party era, and her current government on who runs Tanzania.