As noted in the third Five-Year Development Plan (URT, 2021), the enterprise sector in Tanzania is constrained by several challenges including: pervasive informality, weak legal and regulatory framework and unfavourable business environment which confounds key functional features of private sector operations such as enhancing the registration of property, easing access to credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, and enforcing contracts; thus affecting productivity and competitiveness. These challenges have been compounded by the lack of comprehensive data covering the universe of the enterprise sector in Tanzania for assessing the impact of government policy interventions in addressing them and designing appropriate and effective remedial measures to support increased growth. As it will be explained in the later sections, the existing datasets on enterprise sector for Tanzania are less comprehensive with different gaps.
In recognition of such challenges REPOA conducted a comprehensive nation-wide survey of the enterprise sector in Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) dubbed the Tanzania Enterprise Sector survey 2022 (TES 2022). Unlike previous/existing surveys, the TES 2022 covered more activities/sectors and collected more updated information on firms in the enterprise sector. The survey was completed in early 2023. This paper therefore examines productivity and competitiveness of firms in the enterprise sector in Tanzania using TES 2022.
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