Non-farm enterprises growth: Evidence from Tanzania

Throughout the world a majority of rural business activities revolve around the agriculture/farming sector. Nonfarm enterprises have been slow to grow, and are often limited by supply side factors such as access to finance, road infrastructure, rural cell phone communication and so on.

In their paper, Small Enterprise Growth and the Rural Investment Climate: Evindence from Tanzania, authors Tidiane Kinda and Josef L. Loening analyze nonfarm enterprises in Tanzania — their growth in employment, business challenges and constraints. The authors discuss a number of factors that would help unleash the full potential of private-sector led businesses. The study also looks at the investment climate and supply side issues mentioned above, demonstrating that marginal improvements in the rural investment climate matter for growth.

This paper is part of a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, and is available here.