Experts Gives Proposal to Cut Poverty in Country

from All Africa

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

NEWS

There is need to impart entrepreneurship spirit to all Tanzanians at all levels of society and especially in children as a tool to fight poverty in the country, a UDSM don has said.

Dr Donath Olomi of the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that entrepreneurship as a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that results in the creation, enhancement, realisation, and renewal of value for an individual, group, organization and society should be well enshrined in children upbringing, early learning techniques up through all levels of education.

"Integrating entrepreneurship spirit in Tanzanian culture would facilitate empowerment and hence poverty reduction of Tanzanians right from the grassroots. True empowerment is self empowerment, which is enhancing one's capacity to define and achieve ones aspirations," Dr Olomi said at a workshop on entrepreneurship organized by the National Economic Empowerment Council in the weekend.

He said if children at home and in schools and colleges are brought up in entrepreneurship culture they would develop a strong sense of independence, belief in making things done, strong sense of ownership and belief that rewards come with own effort and hard work brings its rewards, things that most Tanzanians have been lacking.

Tanzanians would also believe in the value of know-how and trust, readiness to take reasonable risks and tendency to take initiatives, Dr Olomi said.

Participants at the workshop said most native Tanzanians are sidelined in most of the economic activities in the country because they lack self confidence, risk taking attitudes and are unwilling to take initiatives to learn new trades.

"There is need for our people to learn from Tanzanians of Asian origin, for example, who seem very enterprising and are always ready to take risks and initiatives in new ventures," said a participant Mary Mushi.

She said one aspect of enterprising natives could learn from Tanzanians Asians is the habit to take the offspring from early ages into the family businesses. And sending them to school should be with the objective of integrating them later in the business rather encouraging them to seek white collar employment while the family businesses vanish after the death of the parents as it is currently the case.

Dr Olomi said entrepreneurial attributes are important not only in establishing and doing businesses but also in public service, in all kinds of employment and in politics.

He said in employment general enterprising tendencies come before papers.

Citing challenges of developing general enterprising tendencies in Tanzania, Dr Olomi said the problem is that entrepreneurship can not be taught as such in the same way as knowledge could be imparted to people.

"It is mainly through ongoing socialization from childhood, through the community, school and work place and through exposing learners to environments that force or encourage people to adopt the values," he said.

He said another challenge was that entrepreneurship in Tanzania is narrowed on business start-up instead of being broadened and diversified.

He recommended the wide and regular use of the mass media such as radio and television programmes as innovative ways of delivering mass entrepreneurship education and training.

He also expressed the need for an entrepreneurship development fund in the form of a marching grant to support entrepreneurship education and training.