New survey findings reveal why many families borrow
The minister for Minerals, Dr. Dotto Biteko, (second right) hands the Ambassador of the European Union (EU), Mr. Manfredo Fanti, a book containing the findings of the fifth phase of the Tanzania Household Monitoring Study for the years 2020 to 2021. With them are Zanzibar chief statistician Salum Ali (right) and Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Amos Makala. PHOTO | MICHAEL MATEMANGA
What you need to know:
- The findings by the Tanzania National Panel Survey, which cover 2020/2021, show that at least 32 percent of households spend money for survival, while 26.4 percent borrow for commercial purposes
Dar es Salaam. One in three household heads borrow money to cover basic expenses, a new survey has shown, casting some light on where the money extended as credit goes.
Personal loans account for the largest share of the credit extended by banks to various economic activities. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s Tanzania National Panel Survey (NPS), which covers 2020/2021, at least 32 percent of households spend the money for their survival while 26.4 percent of them borrow for business purposes.
The survey reveals that 13.1 percent use the loans to pay school fees and 12.4 percent spend the money for medical costs.
Presenting the survey results yesterday, one of the survey coordinators from the NBS, Mr Emilian Karugendo, said the national representative household survey collects information on the living standards of the population, including their consumption expenditure, non-farm income generating activities, agricultural production and other socio-economic characteristics.
“This is the fifth phase since we started in 2008/2009. The number of surveyed households increased to 4,164 from 3,360 due to different reasons including separation and the fact that some start their own households, among other reasons,” he said.
Explaining about access to credits, Mr Karugendo said 11 percent of households borrowed or took credit from any source. Most credit was from formal sources (3.6 percent), followed by informal self-help groups (2.8 percent). Speaking during the launch of the survey, the minister for Minerals, Dr Dotto Biteko, who spoke in place of the minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, suggested using the survey’s results to solve concerns facing the public.
He said the use of accurate statistics is the basis of planning and advised the NBS to involve various stakeholders including the media and government.
The commissioner of Population and Housing Census 2022, Ms Anna Makinda, said the results of the study give a true picture of the local households, advising people to use the correct statistics.
She also said the statistics office will this January launch various census reports including the distribution of population in administrative areas, gender and age groups and election statics.
Marital status
According to the survey, the majority of individuals in Tanzania had either never been married or were in monogamous marriages.
It noted that the largest increase in distribution of population by marital status was for people in monogamous marriages, increasing from 34.8 percent in 2014/15 to 40.5 percent in 2020/21.
“In contrast, there was a considerable decrease in polygamous marriages, from 6.4 percent in 2014/15 to 2.6 percent in 2020/21, and in the proportion of individuals living together (a decrease of 2.8 percentage points),” it stated.
There was little variation between rural and urban areas, though polygamous marriages remain more common in rural areas.
On the other hand, divorces decreased from 2.1 percent to 1.9 percent in the period under review while separation without divorce increased from 3.8 percent to five percent.
