Socio-economic Impact of Privatisation: The Tanzania Experience

Abstract

In Tanzania and during the short run period privatisation has been both positive and negative effects to the economy. The positive impact seems to outweigh the negative. Positive divestiture results can be measured by the number of firms that have been divested, performance of firms which have already been divested, performance of firms, particularly those involved in the supply of public utilities which for the time being remain in the public sector domain, and the degree of competition enhanced by privatisation in general. Negative divestiture results seem to hinge primarily on the number of retrenchees. This factor calls for further research to quantify the exact amount of loss of job opportunities, since there are cases where divestiture led to an increase in job opportunities. Indeed there are also cases where some of the retrenched were redeployed. African Journal of Finance and Management Vol.9(1) 2000: 43-59