Home Appointments President
President
Tanzania Government
| Appointee | Samia Suluhu Hassan |
|---|---|
| Role | President |
| Organisation | Tanzania Government |
| Domain | Politics |
| Start | 19 March 2021 |
| End | Currently in role |
| Notes | First woman President of Tanzania (succession from Magufuli) |
Institutional context
The President of Tanzania is the head of state and head of government, directly elected to a five-year term under the 1977 constitution as amended. From the country's 1964 founding through March 2021 every holder was male.
Career path
Samia Suluhu Hassan (born 1960) earned a master's in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University in collaboration with the Open University of Tanzania. She served in the Zanzibari government and then in Tanzania's national legislature, becoming the first woman Vice President of Tanzania in 2015 under President John Magufuli.
Appointment
Following Magufuli's death on 17 March 2021, Suluhu Hassan assumed the presidency under constitutional vice-presidential succession on 19 March 2021. She is the first woman President of Tanzania.
Tenure
Active. The early phase of her presidency marked a reorientation from Magufuli's COVID-denialist policy stance toward conventional public-health practice, re-engagement with international donors, and easing of some media restrictions imposed under the previous administration. She was reported as winning the October 2025 election with 97.66 percent of the vote, in a process the African Union observer mission stated did not comply with international standards and which independent observers documented as marked by serious irregularities.
Cluster context
Suluhu's 2021 appointment is the dataset's fifth African first-woman head of state and the second by vice-presidential succession (after Banda in Malawi, 2012). She joined Sahle-Work Zewde to make 2021 the first year in African history with two simultaneously serving women heads of state.