Tanzanian enterprises face persistent competitiveness challenges, often attributed to structural constraints beyond managerial control. Existing policy has frequently focused on firm-level interventions without adequately addressing the systemic, institutional barriers that shape the business environment. This policy brief aims to develop an integrated framework for enhancing enterprise competitiveness by diagnosing and prioritising the most binding structural constraints. It seeks to move beyond generic prescriptions to offer targeted, actionable policy mechanisms. The analysis synthesises longitudinal data from enterprise surveys, competitiveness reports, and institutional performance indicators. A diagnostic filtering mechanism was applied to distinguish pervasive structural bottlenecks from transient operational challenges. Infrastructural deficits, particularly in energy and logistics, were identified as the most binding constraint, directly affecting operational costs for over 70% of manufacturing firms. A secondary, interconnected theme was the high cost and limited accessibility of formal credit, which disproportionately impacts small and medium-sized enterprises. Enhancing competitiveness requires a sequenced, multi-agency policy approach that directly targets the foundational infrastructural and financial market failures that currently stifle enterprise productivity and growth. 1. Establish a public-private infrastructure delivery unit to fast-track energy and transport projects. 2. Pilot a credit guarantee scheme specifically tied to efficiency gains from improved infrastructure. 3. Implement a regulatory impact dashboard to monitor the cumulative cost of compliance. competitiveness, structural constraints, policy framework, business environment, enterprise development This brief introduces a novel diagnostic filtering mechanism for prioritising structural constraints and proposes a sequenced policy framework that explicitly links infrastructural investment to financial market interventions.
Mwambene et al. (Thu,) studied this question.