Mbeya is a city located in south west Tanzania, Africa. Mbeya's urban population was 385,279 according to the 2012 census.
Mbeya is the capital of the surrounding rural Mbeya region (population, with Mbeya, totals approx. 2 million).
Mbeya is situated at an altitude of 1,700 metres (5,500 ft), and sprawls through a narrow highland valley surrounded by a bowl of high mountains.
The main language is colloquial Swahili, and the English language is extensively taught in schools.
Following the 1906 gold rush, Mbeya was founded as a gold mining town in the 1920s. The TAZARA railway later attracting farming migrants and small entrepreneurs to the area.
Mbeya and its district were administered by the British until 1961. Mbeya Region was created in 1961.
Mbeya City is now a growing metropolis and business centre for the southern regions and the neighbouring countries of Malawi, Zambia and Congo.
The city is well connected with an all-weather road that forms part of the "Great North Road" running from Cape Town to Alexandria. The city has several tribes including the Safwa, Nyakyusa, Nyiha and Ndali all being agricultural peoples.
Mbeya also boasts as one of the regions that form the bread basket of Tanzania.
Railway Station
The Mbeya Railway Station.
Mbeya is served by the Mbeya Railway Station which is near the A104 or via the TAZARA railway line from the capital (approx. 600-miles, two overnight passenger trains per week).
Road Links
Mbeya can be reached by road on the A-7 highway from Dar es Salaam , There are paved roads which connects Mbeya city with the other towns like Tukuyu through Uyole, Tunduma via TANZAM highway and Chunya to Tabora through Isanga.
Airport
Mbeya connects to the rest of Tanzania by air through Songwe Airport which was opened in December 2012. It is one of four major airports available in Tanzania. Auric Air and Fastjet fly from Songwe to Dar es Salaam.
Local government is administered via the Mbeya Urban District authority and a Regional Commissioner.
Mbeya has weather with enough rainfall and fertile soil which enable it to be the largest producer of maize, rice, bananas, beans, potatoes (Irish & sweet), soya nuts and wheat in the entire country.
Tanzania has a free market in agricultural produce, and Mbeya transports vast amounts of its maize to other areas of Tanzania. There is also extensive animal husbandry, with dairy cattle predominating. Mbeya is also the biggest producer of high-value export and cash crops in Tanzania; those crops are coffee (arabica), tea, cocoa, pyrethirum and spices.
There is some smallholder cultivation of tobacco. Firewood is collected by women and girls, from the wooded valleys and mountainsides.
Bamboo is naturally abundant in the forests, and there are plans to teach local people about this versatile plant and its many uses. Some gold is still mined in the rural Chunya District, by artisan miners.
Mbeya is considered to be heading the Southern Highlands Regions, that's why there is a Mbeya Referral Hospital which serves the whole of the Southern Highlands regions. The Bank of Tanzania, Mbeya Cement Company, Afri Bottlers Company Coca-Cola Company, SBC Tanzania Ltd Pepsi Cola Company, Tanzania Breweries Limited, NMB, TIB, Mbozi Coffee Curing Limited, Tukuyu Tea Company, Tanzania Oxygen Limited TOL - KYEJO, CRDB all these serve as zonal representative for southern Highlands.
There are also a number of companies and statutory organisations with zonal offices in Mbeya.