Tanzania

As a relatively new market economy, Tanzania is still testing how business is done in a free market. Many farmers and other small business owners remain highly risk averse, and even the most compelling opportunity can be rejected.

80% of Tanzania’s residents live in rural areas and work primarily in the agricultural sector.

However, there is a growing portfolio of successful Tanzanian businesses, which is helping to attract investors and new enterprises. Nearly 90 percent of Tanzania’s residents live in rural areas, work primarily in the agricultural sector and lack access to information, technology and markets.

For more than 25 years, TechnoServe has been working in Tanzania with farmers, cooperatives, suppliers and processors to strategically develop competitive industries around key crops, including cash crops such as cocoa and coffee and staples such as maize and rice. We are helping farmers make the transition from subsistence to commercial production, assisting processors to improve operations and identifying opportunities for investment in agriculture. We are also supporting the diversification of Tanzania’s economy through entrepreneurship programs that empower men and women to create thriving small- and medium-sized businesses in a variety of sectors.