The new dynamism in Tanzania and especially the recent mobile money tax (tozo) controversy has motivated me to read this book. This book aims at giving you a dispassionate analysis on the challenges and choices confronting the country and its people in the realm of Tanzania economic policies by focusing on key issues that matter for the local community while avoiding economic jargon. It gives you insights from international scholars, domestic scholars, officials and policy makers working on the economics of the country.
The book has twelve chapters each discussing dispassionately key issues effecting the local community and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions about important choices. I wouldn’t prefer sharing my conclusions after reading all the chapters but I’m sure you will at least enjoy reading Chapter One which sets the stage for Chapter Four. Chapter One is about Productivity, Organizations, and Connectivity. It sets stage for the chapter four by describing why Tanzania remains relatively poor despite its people working hard in both market and non-market sectors. Spoiler alert if you don’t want to know, it’s because we Tanzanians we are producing much less than ordinary people in most other societies
Chapter four titled Transforming Dar Es Salaam into the City That works. It discusses how processes of urbanization can alter the fundamental organization of production and consumption in ways that, if handled correctly, can radically increase economic productivity and well-being. Here you will learn how a successful city raises the productivity of its workforce. Then you will learn how well has Dar es Salaam been doing in respect of raising the productivity of its workforce . You will also learn why/how the city forces extra workforce to live in the outskirts of the city and how this affect economic productivity.
Lastly, the final chapter focuses on the core concerns of the macroeconomic agencies in Tanzania. It discusses the evolution of the financial system in Tanzania from a wholly bank centric system to mobile money services which are able to provide financial access at the small-scale level.
