mfumo wa kuunganisha biashara tanzania connecting corporate ...

IntroductionThe Tanzanian government is working hard to create opportunities for our country’s citizens toraise themselves from poverty. One selected route is to open up our economy both to internal andoutside investment, which Government did by passing enabling legislation such as the TanzaniaInvestment Act No. 26 of 1997.Another route - and a key Act of enabling legislation - was the Land Acts passed in 1999, whichgovern land ownership and management. Significant aspects of this legislation are that for thefirst time in decades land is recognized as a commodity, while a gender balance in ownership isencouraged.Government and academics have identified that a massive store of potential development capital isembodied in Tanzania’s extensive lands and thousands of small businesses. However, this treasuretrove of capital is mainly inaccessible due to inadequate regulations and the lack of governmentcapacity to swiftly process and record land ownership and transactions.It is for this purpose that the Tanzanian government introduced its MKURABITA programme, whichaims at amending laws and procedures so that Tanzanians can tap into the intrinsic capital intheir land, businesses and assets. The MKURABITA programme intends facilitating land ownership(buying or selling land).Due to client demand, Mawalla Advocates established a trust division (Mawalla Trust Limited) in2005 to warehouse client properties, funds and company shares. The Mawalla Trust rapidly grew toamong the biggest in Tanzania, with assets held in trust growing to over USD 5 million by 2009. Over250 of these assets were properties and the Mawalla Trust became aware that many clients werefrustrated by bureaucratic difficulties in registering their property ownerships and transactions.Since its original inception the Mawalla Group has sought out innovative products and servicesthat can add value for its clients. We therefore identify emerging trends in the legal, business andtechnical domains with a view to entering and developing new market niches.As a consequence, in 2007 the Mawalla Trust commissioned its own property data profiling software,which was designed to keep its clients’ land ownership and transaction information up to dateand in order. By 2009 this proprietary web-based database for real estate management was fullyfunctional. It is the first – and still only – software of its kind in Tanzania.Another key 2009 event was the decision taken by Mawalla Advocates and Mawalla Trust Limited- due to their growing portfolio of clients and continuing demand for value-added services - toexpand into a broader Mawalla Group. Being determined to maintain the renowned Mawalla highservice levels, Mawalla Advocates, the law firm, and the Mawalla Trust, which holds funds, sharesand properties on behalf of its clients, became the foundation of the new Mawalla Group, in whichspecific services were spun off into Corporate Services, Financial Services and Real Estate businessunits. The land related functions of these units are efficiently enabled through the PDP system.During this process, the Mawalla Group rebranded and repositioned itself in the marketplace, whileduring which it identified and cut out its own non-essential land costs through its PDP system.The choice of business services now offered by the Mawalla Group, underpinned by 50 years ofindependent legal experience, is set to revolutionize Tanzania’s corporate culture and add impetusto the raising of capital against assets.6