Fumba
Fumba is a village and shehia on the Tanzanian island of Unguja, part of Zanzibar. The shehia is home to Fumba Port, which, upon its completed expansion, will serve as Zanzibar's primary import hub.
Geography
Fumba village is located in the southwest of the island, at the end of the Fumba Peninsula, roughly 20km south of Zanzibar International Airport. It overlooks Menai Bay in Mjini Magharibi Region. It is served by the Fumba Polisi – Dimani Dambani, Dimani Sokoni-Fumba Polisi, and Fumba Polisi-Fumba Beach roads.Demographics
As of 2017, according to information published as part of a joint UNICEF-Zanzibari government district profiling effort, the population of Fumba was 981, of whom 492 were male, and 489 female. 1.1% of the population was above the age of 60. There were 414 homes composed of 232 households, with an average household occupancy of 4.2 persons.Economy and environment
The village's economy is largely based around subsistence agriculture. UNICEF's 2017 district profile documented 52 registered traders in the village. Fumba's villagers are part of a district farmers' group to organize banana production. Staple crops include cassava, bananas, and cabbage, though other produce is grown.From 2008-2014, and from 2016-2017, the shehia was supported by the Agriculture Sector Support Programme. For the same period with the addition of 2015, it was supported by the Agriculture Sector Development Programme for Livestock. A women's seaweed harvesting collective known as Pania Uchupe, roughly translated from Swahili as "Let's work hard together to succeed" has met modest success in the village and in the global marketplace. Since 2021, it has supplied a factory in Kerege, Dar es Salaam, known as SeaWeed Café.
Fumba Port
In late August 2025 the Zanzibari government announced an Sh1 trillion investment in regional port infrastructure. Among the projects announced was the expansion and deepening of Fumba Port, located east of the village, to serve as an import hub for the islands; upon completion, the dredging process would allow for the handling of 250,000 shipping containers annually. This would enable Zanzibar to reduce its reliance on port infrastructure at Dar es Salaam, Tanga, and Mombasa in mainland Tanzania and Kenya.Urban development, the Fumba SEZ, and Fumba Town
Since 2014, a new-town development named Fumba Town has been underway within the area of the Fumba Special Economic Zone, a few kilometers north of Fumba-proper. Its design aims to provide a total of 3000 residential units, covering a 1.25km band of coastline over 149 acres.Tourism and coastal degradation
Tourism plays an outsize role in the economy of Zanzibar, though impacts on poverty reduction in the region have been mixed. The spread of tourist infrastructure along the island's coastline has had significant negative impacts on coastal ecosystems and communities. The loss of access to the sea which has come with the development of this infrastructure has led to a widespread loss of livelihood for fishermen in the region. In 2017, inhabitants of Fumba represented the district's second largest contingency of fishermen.The region encompassed by Fumba is existentially threatened by pollution, coastal construction, environmentally destructive fishing, and sand mining. Fumba is one of four shehias considered to be under the greatest threat from seawater encroachment in Magharibi-A District.