The Household Enterprise Sector in Tanzania : Why It Matters and Who Cares

Kweka, Josaphat ; Fox, Louise

关键词: ACCESS TO CREDIT;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES;    ACCESS TO FORMAL CREDIT;    ACCESS TO LOANS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5882
RP-ID  :  WPS5882

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The household enterprise sector has asignificant role in the Tanzanian economy. It employs alarger share of the urban labor force than wage employment,and is increasingly seen as an alternative to agriculture asa source of additional income for rural and urbanhouseholds. The sector is uniquely placed within theinformal sector, where it represents both conditions ofinformal employment and informal enterprise. This paperpresents a case study on Tanzania using a mixed approach bycombining both quantitative and qualitative analysis toexamine the important role of household enterprises in thelabor force of Tanzania, and to identify key factors thatinfluence their productivity. Household enterprise ownersare similar to typical labor force participants althoughprimary education appears to be the minimum qualificationfor household enterprise operators to be successful. Accessto location matters -- good, secure location in amarketplace or industrial cluster raises earnings - andaccess to transport and electricity is found to have asignificant effect on earnings as well. In large urbanareas, the biggest constraint faced by household enterprisesis the lack of access to secure workspace to run the smallbusiness. Although lack of credit is a problem across allenterprises in Tanzania, household enterprises are morevulnerable because they are largely left out of thefinancial sector either as savers or borrowers. Although HEsare part of the livelihood strategies of over half ofhouseholds in Tanzania, they are ignored in the currentdevelopment policy frameworks, which emphasizeformalization, not productivity. Tanzania has a large numberof programs and projects for informal enterprises, but thereis no set of policies and program interventions targeted atthe household enterprise sector. This gap exacerbates thevulnerability of household enterprises, and reduces their productivity.