The private sector in Tanzania is increasingly impacting policy, especially at the national and sectoral levels – a momentum that needs to be driven up.

That is the view of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), which also asserts that ensuring existence of a conducive business environment is a public good and it should be sustainable no matter the level of development in the country.

TPSF Executive Director Godfrey Simbeye said this at the weekend at an event to mark the end of the Business Environment Strengthening Tanzania- Advocacy component (BEST-AC), a programme that has served the country for ten years. 

“BEST AC has been here for 10 years now, and we must confess that where the private sector organisations and policy advocacy capacity was in 2004 is not where we are today, thanks to this project,” he said.

The programme will be succeeded by BEST-Dialogue.

He added that BEST-AC has been the most consistently active and sustained part of the bigger BEST programme.

It was truly embedded in the private sector, making close and regular interactions and continuous mutual learning possible, he said.

He commended the decision made by government and specifically President Jakaya Kikwete at the seventh TNBC meeting held on 16th December 2013 to make the business environment a National Key Result Area No.7 under the ambitious Big Results Now (BRN) programme.

However, he said, TPSF was concerned that the issue of bureaucracy has not been discussed as work stream in the big results labs for business environment.

“This problem is increasing day by day as the informal sector is increasing.”

On his side, the acting Director of President’s Delivery Bureau (PDB), Peniel Lyimo, commended BEST-AC for the role it has played in supporting private sector to advocate for improved business environment.

“The government recognizes the important role of the private sector as a driver of the economy. That is creating a conducive business environment has been entrenched in Big Results Now,” he said.

He said BEST-AC supported the private sector despite many challenges, and whenever the sector spoke with one voice, solutions to challenges have been found.

“BEST-AC has done a good job and its contributions are greatly valued by the private sector,” he said. For the last ten years BEST-AC helped to strengthen the private sector through enabling trade associations and membership organisations to lobby government for change on regulations, taxes and levies, he added.

BEST-AC was funded by the British, Dutch, Danish and Swedish governments and provided grants and funding to membership organisations, such as chambers of Commerce and trade associations, such as the Agricultural Council of Tanzania.

These grants enable them to have effective dialogue with government to change policies, laws and regulations.