Policy Enabling Environment of Mining Sector in Tanzania: A Review of Opportunities and Challenges

Mining has increasingly become an important contributor to the economy of developing countries including Tanzania. Since independence, Tanzania has made several efforts in response to address the challenges in the mining sector to enhance its contribution to the national economy. However, such efforts have not been successful in addressing the persisting challenges, which includes lack of expected benefits, failure to develop policy options for making the investment environment supportive for all actors in the sector; hence failure to use mineral wealth sustainably. The reasons for the persistence of these challenges are not well documented especially in relation to the policy framework. While some scholars attribute these challenges to bad deals with mining companies, others blame the government for its failure to effectively implement, monitor and enforce the existing regulatory framework. This paper reviews the policy enabling environment of the mining sector in Tanzania. The results indicate that Tanzania has taken measures to create some opportunities through policy enabling environment. However, the measures have not been able to achieve the expected results due to the persistence of targeted challenges in the sector. In view of this, improvement of the policy framework is particularly needed where policy gaps have accelerated for poor practices.