Many schools in Tanzania were built by the Aga Khan group which ran them for years before the wave of nationalization when the government grabbed and transformed the institutions into public entities.
For instance, people who attended the Bagamoyo Primary School in Tukuyu Division of Rungwe District in Mbeya region may have not realized that the institution was formerly known as Agha Khan School.
Apart from the Aga Khan, there were many other Ismailis in Tanzania who established education and health services as well businesses, buildings and other properties across the country, before departing to other destinations when the conditions became less favorable for them.
More about the Ismailis in Tanzania can be found here.
Among the higher institutions of learning, there is the Aga Khan University in Dar-es-salaam and the Aga Khan University in Arusha.
Other than schools, the Aga Khan built and operated hospitals and health centers in Tanzania as they did in many other parts of East Africa, Kenya and Uganda included.
Today there is the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar-es-salaam, still in operation.
Other Aga-Khan hospitals can be found in Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza and Mbeya.
The Geita Gold Mining is among the Aga Khan Business holdings in Tanzania.
Aga Khan also invested in the Diamond Trust Bank with branches in Dar, Dodoma, Mwanza and Arusha.
The Aga Khan network, apart from philanthropic services, was active in investments, as seen, in the mining fields, banking and of course, insurance, the Jubilee Insurance which operates in mostly urban areas of Tanzania is a case example.
There are reports that, even the Dodoma Airport, currently being rebuilt to serve as an international terminal was founded by the Aga Khan specifically to cater for medical flying doctors.
The Aga Khan was bestowed with the designation of ‘His Highness’ by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather the Aga Khan III unexpectedly made him heir to the family’s 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect.
The prince became the Aga Khan IV on July 11, 1957, in Geneva, Switzerland and later that year had an installation ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the spot where his grandfather once had his weight equaled in diamonds in gifts from his followers.