DAR ES SALAAM: AS the Minority Interest Forum (MIF) 2026 drew to a close on March 18, participants left with a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing Tanzania’s minority interest companies and their pivotal role in the country’s economic transformation under Dira 2050.
Over the course of the three-day forum, directors, policymakers and government officials engaged in in-depth discussions that brought to light ten key issues shaping the future of Tanzania’s minority interest companies, with board chairs actively participating on day one to provide strategic guidance and perspectives.
These included the need for stronger governance frameworks, alignment of corporate strategies with national priorities and the adoption of technology and competitive intelligence.
Participants also emphasised the importance of boosting non-tax revenue, fostering collaborative and foresight-driven leadership, ensuring measurable results, enhancing accountability, safeguarding public equity, translating dialogue into actionable outcomes, and reinforcing stewardship of public investments.
The issues, while distinct, often intersected, reflecting the shared concerns of those responsible for steering Tanzania’s minority interest companies toward national development objectives.
Finance Minister Amb Khamis Mussa Omar framed the discussions around governance and strategic focus, describing strong governance as the backbone of resilient companies.
“Governance is not just a set of rules; it is the culture that ensures transparency, accountability, and sustainability,” he said, emphasising that robust frameworks are essential for anticipating risks, seizing opportunities, and delivering meaningful returns to the government and citizens.
He urged companies to align corporate strategies with Dira 2050 and adopt forwardlooking approaches, including the use of technology to strengthen transparency and public trust.
In a similar vein, Deputy Minister in the President’s Office – Planning and Investment, Dr Pius Chaya, underscored the critical role of performance, accountability, and measurable results.
“Government investments are shares in the future of our nation,” he said, highlighting that public investments carry obligations beyond financial returns.
Dr Chaya called for increased non-tax revenue, stronger company performance, and vigilance in protecting public equity against dilution, points that resonate closely with the Finance Minister’s call for alignment and strategic oversight.
The Treasury Registrar, Mr Nehemiah Mchechu, further contextualised the forum within Tanzania’s Dira 2050 ambitions, noting that the country’s trillion-dollar economy goal requires a consistent 10.31 per cent GDP growth per year, while current growth averages 6.2 per cent, a gap of 4.11 percentage points.
He reminded directors of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s directive that public enterprises contribute at least 10 per cent of all non-tax revenue, stressing that achieving Dira 2050’s bold target requires accelerated performance across all sectors, including minorityowned companies.
“The forum has equipped directors with context, data, and a platform, the rest depends on the decisions and commitments you make in the boardroom,” Mr Mchechu said.
“Every great transformation begins with leaders who refuse to accept the status quo. You are those leaders.” He emphasised that foresight-driven leadership, strategic alignment, and disciplined stewardship of public resources are essential to bridging the growth gap and driving meaningful change.
Building on this, Amb Thobias Makoba, Director of Global Strategies and Geopolitics at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, provided a global and disruptive context for board decisionmaking.
He highlighted how geopolitical tensions, technology disruption, climate pressures, supply chain shifts, and health crises interact to create a “new normal” of disruption that boards must anticipate.
He stressed the importance of integrating Economic Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence into strategic decisionmaking, planning for economic risk dashboards, and developing foresight teams to understand global trends out to 2050.
“Conflict and disruptions are permanent, not temporary,” he said, stressing that boards must plan for constant global and economic volatility.
“Organisations at higher strategic intelligence maturity will excel. Boards must be aware of global megatrends, rethink business models in a more protectionist world, balance short-term performance with long-term value creation, and invest in talent and R&D to remain adaptive and resilient.”
Building on these insights, Mr Pepe Minambo, Business Strategy Specialist and International Human Resources Consultant, highlighted the critical role of innovation under pressure and adaptive strategies in unlocking real value from minority interest companies.
Drawing from successful African state-owned enterprises, he emphasised that strategic value is driven by corporate culture, leadership effectiveness, strategic planning, and operational execution.
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He stressed that boards must move from fixed mindsets to growth-oriented thinking, ensuring organisational norms support agility and innovation.
In dynamic environments where disruptions, technological, regulatory, or market-driven can rapidly shift the business landscape, adaptive strategies are essential.
He noted that effective boards must anticipate challenges, guide companies in pivoting strategies without compromising long-term value, and invest in human capital and talent development to sustain competitive advantage, reinforcing the forum’s overarching message that oversight alone is insufficient and boards must foster innovation-driven, adaptive cultures to deliver economic and societal returns.
Expanding on this shift in governance thinking, Ivan Tarimo, Director at Bankable Tanzania, challenged directors to rethink governance itself.
He contrasted traditional governance, focused on compliance, monitoring and risk containment, with modern governance, which emphasises strategic anticipation, capital stewardship, and long-term value creation.
“Control is structural. Influence is strategic. Oversight gives discipline. Foresight gives direction,” Mr Tarimo said, noting that minority directors, while they may not control companies, shape the quality of decisions that ultimately determine value.
He highlighted the need to safeguard public capital, deploy strategic information and coalition-building, and translate governance discipline into measurable economic and fiscal returns amidst global challenges such as geopolitics, technological disruption, energy transitions, and climate pressures.
Similarly, insights from Dr Melkiory Ngido, the Country Manager, Twiga Minerals Corporation/Barrick Tanzania, emphasised the urgent need to reimagine governance in high-risk, strategic sectors such as mining.
He highlighted that governance must be designed to speed decision-making, drive growth, build trust, and respond to emerging risks.
Boards must integrate sustainability, community engagement, and shared-value approaches into governance frameworks, ensuring that decisions on licensing, infrastructure, local content, skills development, and technology contribute to long-term national and corporate resilience.
“In this transition era, transparency, disciplined decisionmaking, trust-building, and forward-looking systems are essential to creating resilient operations that align with both global standards and Tanzania’s strategic interests,” opined Dr Ngido.
Strategic decision-making was further emphasised by Dr Mosses Mwizarubi, Chairman of Tanzania Pharmaceutical Industries, who echoed the call for proactive and fast-paced leadership.
“We need to look ahead when making decisions. We are supposed to be proactive instead of reactive. We need to make sure that we do things with speed,” he said.
“If we want to attain what is in Dira 2050, we need to embrace speed…while others are walking, we need to run.” Dr Mwizarubi also encouraged directors to challenge conventional approaches and embrace innovation, reiterating the foresight and accountability emphasized by Mchechu and Tarimo.
Prof Sylvia Temu, NMB Bank Board Director, reinforced these insights, highlighting the need to move beyond comfort zones and think big.
“There is no way you can oversee effective oversight without having anticipatory mindsets,” she said, stressing that institutions must align their ambitions with national priorities and balance commercial objectives with public interest.
She added that boards must also adapt to global dynamics, adopt broader performance metrics, and prioritise talent retention to ensure long-term institutional success.
Dr Elirehema Doriye, Chairman of NBC Bank, highlighted the need to redefine board roles to enhance participation and strategic impact.
“We need to have a paradigm shift, more from reactive boards to participatory boards,” he said, calling on boards to constructively challenge management and take a leading role in shaping strategic direction.
Ntimi Malambugi, Senior Accountant at the OTR, emphasised the importance of structured board assessment frameworks in strengthening oversight and governance delivery.
He noted that effective governance requires measurable outputs from directors and continuous evaluation of board performance to enhance accountability.
“A true measure of a board’s effectiveness lies in the quality of judgment it applies to overseeing the entity,” he said.
The significance of diligent oversight was further reinforced by Parliamentary Public Investment Committee chairman Mr Masanja Kadogosa.
He noted that while the government has invested 92.3 trillion/- across 308 entities, minority interest companies account for 3.6 trillion/-, underscoring the need to maximise returns and performance.
Underlying all discussions was the principle of stewardship. Directors were reminded that minority shareholding represents a trust between the government, citizens, and companies, where every decision carries long-term national implications.
By the forum’s conclusion, one message was clear: transforming minority interest companies requires more than oversight, it demands foresight, accountability and strategic leadership.
Addressing the ten issues identified at the forum will be critical to ensuring these companies become engines of growth, innovation and sustainable prosperity for Tanzania. Prepared by the Office of the Treasury Registrar.