Demographic and Socio-economic Factors Influencing Households & Investment Choices in Tanzania

AbstractThis paper primarily aims to determine the demographic and socio-economic characteristics affecting households’ investment choices in Tanzania using data from the FinScope survey which was done in 2017. The study employed multivariate analytical technique. The results of the paper reveal that increase in education level lowers the likelihood of individual household to invest in informal groups as well as agricultural ventures. Also, the study shows that men are more risk averse and less likely to invest in the informal groups, investment accounts as well as personal businesses. It is also revealed that urban households may easily access financial products due to the presence of a good number of financial institutions located in urban compared to rural areas, and that urban households rarely participate in agricultural activities due to lack of enough land in townships. Finally, the paper confirms that employed households are more likely to make a good financial decision because most of them are believed to have good education which enable them to access formal financial literacy education. Consequently, the study opines that, because most of households, as revealed in the survey from which the employed dataset is based, are hailing from rural settings where agriculture is the main economic activity, we establish that agricultural ventures require a complete revamp for Tanzania to become a middle-income economy through its industrialization agenda.