By Emmanuel D Tayari,
The media, like any other business, has its own purpose. The media seeks a clear and simple thing – to maximize the public’s attention. This can be achieved by using simple logic. First, it is necessary to select and present the public with information which is by far the worst affected and most concerned about people. Secondly, the selected information should be given in the most attractive way – so that the viewer or reader is interested.
Given the current public fascination with the election, it is sad to see the Media houses not concentrating on the major issues of the economy and in this case, they write more about news, which is more or less of a economical nature. But I kind of understand, because the society tends to best “use” information that is negative or shocking in nature, as well as news, which is characterized by certain elements of the show or pleasure and sometimes we make mistake of excluding the economic news in this category.
Looking into democracy issues, we see that; democracy is the power of people, exercised by the people through elections where they choose who to entrust with the power to control everything including the economy. While we have that power, it is good to remind ourselves that; the Tanzanian economy can only improve if we can entrust the power to people who believe in transforming our economy by imparting business and entrepreneurial spirit to our people.
For us to be able to develop our educational system, and improve our people lives, we need revenues. And we can get revenue if we embrace entrepreneurship because we will be able to create more business and business will add value, and hence increase the tax revenue which is useful in both private and public interests.
According to global statistics, many countries in the world depend in small business creation to tackle unemployment where within those countries entrepreneurships is the biggest creator of new jobs. It is necessary to start thinking about how to motivate people to create new businesses, and create more wealth in Tanzania. I want to see the next government providing more support for start-ups and supporting growth of existing firms, as well as helping firms with the ability to access information in many forms. These measures are helpful, and will incentivise people to start business as a man’s own ideas and the desire to start-up companies have been designated as being more important than other things around.
As I have written before, entrepreneurship should be a pillar of private-sector-led economy, and education should aim at providing advice on how to access capital resources, and enhance knowledge on technical and networking support. If this training will be provided to the citizens, it will help to boost the entrepreneurial mindset and foster the desire to achieve and inspire action. The entrepreneurship education will also educate the informal sector on why it is important to formalize their business status and how they can grow and benefit from formalising their business.
As part of the solution the government can achieve the goal of providing entrepreneurship education by starting free entrepreneurship classes which can be held every weekend in primary schools all over the country for the people who work in the informal sector.
The next government should also ensure access of entrepreneurship education to all students in Tanzania, regardless of the level of education they are attending. This education should cover primary, secondary and vocational education; and it will be aimed at promoting entrepreneurial education agenda.
Moreover, to emphasise on the point above, Entrepreneurship should be made as one of the compulsory subject in STD seven Exams and in Certificate of Secondary School Education examination. And In facilitating this vision the current education system needs reforms to incorporate it with much stronger business aspects of in the curriculum. The current approach does not encourage young people to become entrepreneurs. The society needs active and enterprising young people, who could become tomorrow’s Tanzanian employers and leaders.
Lastly, Entrepreneurial spirit does not mean a mere human after all so-called ability to do business. Enterprising people are independent, courageous and creative, and these properties could be developed by each of us, regardless of whether one wants to be a future employer; so all of us we have a part to play. Thus for the next government the question remains; can they encourage more people in entrepreneurship?
Emmanuel Tayari is the secretary of Tanzania Edinburgh Community Association (TzECA). He is also a freelance journalist with the Business Times, Tanzania.
Thank you Emmanuel for writing this, and Joji for posting it. Three quick thoughts:
1. I think it is also a good time to remember that starting a business – or having business ideas for that matter – can also involve positive social impact. Businesses do not just have to have one bottom-line of making a profit, but they can have two or three bottom lines which involve their consumers benefiting from a better quality of life, thus social entrepreneurship.
2. I thought this sentance was key: “Entrepreneurship education will also educate the informal sector on why it is important to formalize their business status and how they can grow and benefit from formalising their business.” Something that I have seen Tanzanian papers write about almost on a weekly basis is along the lines of providing entrepreneurship training as part of formal education, though unfortunately I am not sure these rants have been met with swift and positive action by people who can do something about it.
3. What do you think of an open-source entrepreneurship education curriculum? And would you be interested in helping to write one?
Guys:
I beg to differ. We have a good number of Tanzanians that have entrepreneurial spirit. However, what is missing is the way to channel their energy into proper use.
Any business venture involves a significant number of risk taking. For example here in the USA, out of 100 new business ventures, 50 end up in failure within 2 or 5 years of their existence. However, this high rate of failure does not deter Americans to try new ventures because there are various mechanisms that protect people and their businesses.
Now, when it comes to Tanzania, the gap is wider. In Tanzania, they expect you to start your own business from scratch. They expect you to protect your own business, more significantly the playing field is not leveled. Therefore, business knowledge you envisioned to be taught in school will have minimum impact outside classrooms. The same way Tanzanians have failed to apply agricultural or engineering knowledge for their own benefits.
To be preciously for example, currently at least each district has one agriculture secondary school. However, having a good number of agriculture schools has not translated agricultural knowledge into expertise. This is because the input of graduates from these schools in agricultural sector is pathetic. The Agricultural throughput in Tanzania is one of the worse in the world. Therefore, teaching and applying knowledge are two different things and we should do better to distinguish the two.
In Tanzania, the big problem is that people are just looking for easy ways to succeed. while we know that entrepreneurship needs commitment, to dare to initiate,
Our historical background is another problem, that is socialism, the governe ment was responsible to control the means of production. Tanzanians were not prepared to own business.
A fine piece of article:
I concur with you Emmanuel; we do need to introduce entrepreneurship to every level of our education, from primary to university.
The good thing about being enterprising is the encouragement for people to be innovative, creative and show initiative, and it’s very possible to achieve all these if training, guidance and support is offered. I suggest our government to have SME’s policies which will make this a reality. I believe everyone is born with some kind of artistic flair, its matter of being inspired, supported and guided to express them.
We tend to forget our country’s unemployment is the highest in the world, having a standard or even a degree qualifications, doesn’t guarantee employment nowadays, we have to provide another route for these students and youths, and it will not matter whether they have engineering, medicine or architecture qualifications, they have to have an idea how to use those qualifications to their advantages. There is hope; we have seen business plan competitions and financial institutions offering funding for the best ideas. I agree its not enough, I wish we would have a business link support, which will have mentors (on government payroll) to finesse those ideas, to provide crucial info about cash flow statements to places where one can secure funding. Furthermore we need more business angels, top business people like Mengi, Mohammed Dewji, Yogesh Manek and the like to offer funding for stakes in business start-ups.
Not all of us need to be employed, SMEs’ are the backbone of the leading world economic giants, small businesses caters for the majority, if handled and supported, it can provide self employment, boost government coffers and serve our people needs.
Zakumi ndugu yangu uko huku. Sikuoni Jamii Forum. Naona bado unashikilia bango ajenda ya ubepari uchwara kwa kutumia mifano ya USA. Tuwasiliane kuhusu ile dhana yako ya wingi wa watu (population) unavyohusiana na maendeleo (progress) – nimepata takwimu na hoja nzito kuhusu hiyo dhana pamoja na ile nyingine ya usahihi (precision).
I am here by mistakes. Anyway, I use the examples from the USA because the entrepreneurial spirit and skills of this country are legendary.
Now, let us come back to the topic at hand here. Any children want to emulate the achievements of successful people in their surrounding areas.
Here in America when I visit a farmers Market, I see people selling their agricultural produces the same way my fellow Tanzanians sell their cassava as in the picture above. So I don’t see the reason why our so called WACHUUZI are not part of your entrepreneurial skill definitions. Are we undermining their skills and contributions?
Concerning my population theory, yes I strongly believe that there is a correlation between population growth and progress. I wanted to use this theory as the premise to answer WAAFRIKA NDIO WALIVYO. So if you have some data, we can systematically prove the theory.