John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was (born 29th October 1959) is the President of Tanzania, he has been in office since 2015.
He was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1995, he served in the Cabinet of Tanzania as Deputy Minister of Works from 1995 to 2000, Minister of Works from 2000 to 2006, Minister of Lands and Human Settlement from 2006 to 2008, Minister of Livestock and Fisheries from 2008 to 2010, and as Minister of Works for a second time from 2010 to 2015.
Standing as the candidate of the ruling CCM, he won the October 2015 presidential election and was sworn in on 5 November 2015.
Magufuli, the son of a peasant farmer, won the election to become Tanzania’s next president on his 56th birthday, so it was the perfect gift for him.
He was never part of the inner-circle of the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, so it came as a surprise to his critics that he secured its candidature for the presidency.
Mr Magufuli won the 29 October poll with 58% of the votes to Mr Lowassa’s 40% in a fiercely contested election.
As Works minister in the outgoing government, he was reputed to be a no-nonsense, results-driven politician.
The World Bank (WB) has said it is impressed by various measures taken by President John Magufuli to tackle runaway government expenditure.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has congratulated his Tanzanian counterpart John Pombe Magufuli for the tough measures taken to improve efficiency of the port of Dar es Salaam that connects the landlocked Rwanda.
He vowed that he would not tolerate corruption – an issue which drove many voters to support the opposition Ukawa coalition.
Married with five children, Mr Magufuli was born in north-western Tanzania’s Chato district along the shores of Lake Victoria.
Once a maths and chemistry teacher, he went on to become an industrial chemist – and was awarded a doctorate in chemistry from Dar es Salaam University in 2009.
Mr Magufuli is a staunch Catholic who loves singing in the church choir and playing traditional drums.
