[6] MSCL is wholly owned by the Tanzanian Government via the Treasury Registrar and operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport.

The company's head office is in the northern city of Mwanza at the shores of Lake Victoria.

[7] Passenger services on Lake Tanganyika to neighbouring countries include Mpulungu in Zambia; Bujumbura in Burundi; and Kalemie, Uvira and Baraka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

MV Liemba (formerly the Imperial German Navy's SMS Graf von Goetzen) was built in 1913 and still operates on Lake Tanganyika.

[9] In 2014, Transport Minister Harrison Mwakyembe informed the Parliament that the government's plan to purchase three new vessels from Denmark had been delayed until June 2015 because of a 163 per cent increase in costs.