Challenges Facing Women in Formalization of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises: A Case of Kinondoni Municipal, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

It is estimated that two billion (61 per cent) of the global employed population earn their living in the informal economy. Women’s enterprises are largely informal enterprises; it is common knowledge that women are dominant members of the informal economy and are less present as owners of formal enterprises. Women play a key role in the private sector and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Tanzania. Most WOEs in Tanzania are concentrated in informal, micro, low growth, and low profit activities, where entry barriers are low but price competition is intense. This happens while the government of Tanzania has expressed commitment to support women’s entrepreneurship through a number of policy pronouncement as well as specific support programs to empower their businesses. Therefore this study intended to investigate challenges making women to continue doing informal business in Tanzania regardless of the commitment of the government and a number of negative effects associated with this choice. Data collection was carried out through individual survey and focus groups discussions. Likert scale type questions were used to measure women attitude on business registration. Results indicate that low awareness among business women on registration matters, high registration fee, high tax for the registered enterprises, long time spent in registration process hinders women to go for it. The study concludes that the number of women who registered their enterprises at Kinondoni district is low. The paper recommends that government and other stakeholders in business should ensure that they raise awareness to all women in business on the importance of registering enterprises. The registration fee and business tax should be affordable to enable all willing business women to register their enterprises.