There is currently a general consensus that enterprise promotion and growth constitute one of the viable strategies for achieving national development goals such as economic development and poverty alleviation. With various forms of support, enterprises are likely to improve their productivity and competitiveness, make a greater contribution to generating wealth and alleviating poverty among families of owners and workers alike, and create more jobs. Using data from a survey of 136 micro and small-scale enterprises (MSEs) in Tanzania, this paper examines enterprise characteristics and identifies a number of external constraints that influence enterprise growth. Based on the identified constraints the paper highlights a number of policy measures that may be relevant to the formulation of supportive programmes for MSE growth in Tanzania, and indeed other developing countries. This contribution probably comes at a critical moment when the Tanzanian government is in the process of developing a number of programmes to promote the MSE sector.
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