Unveiling the Urban Transition Characteristics from the Dar es Salaam City Centre Outwards: A Perception of Street Vendors of Tanzania

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue II, February 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Unveiling the Urban Transition Characteristics from the Dar es Salaam City Centre Outwards: A Perception of Street Vendors of Tanzania

Michael John Haule

Institute of Accountancy Arusha, Dar es Salaam Campus, P.O Box 69007, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract:-Urbanization is a process of expansion of cities to areas which were previously rural. Street vending is a type of small business practiced by petty traders who are either static or mobile within and/or along streets. This particular type of business dominates many of the developing world cities Dar es Salaam inclusive, where statistics indicate the presence of about 700,000 street vendors. Since Dar es Salaam is among the fastest growing cities of Africa, it is of interest investigating and unveiling the perceptions of street vendors on the city regarding its urbanization, a phenomenon concomitant with expansion of petty businesses. At this juncture, it is of significance to underpin the critical need to establish the street vendor’s perceptions on the urbanization of Dar es Salaam. The major findings of the study indicated that urbanization is characterized by rapid spatial expansion coupled with expansion of street vending business into urban fringes. Moreover, urbanization was not commensurate with expansion of social services delivered by Local Government Authorities (LGAs), i.e. social service delivery tended to lag behind the pace of urbanization. The influence of LGAs on street vendors was observed fading with increasing distance away from the city centre and vice versa; while the same pattern was observed for typology of industrial and agricultural products offered for sale by street vendors.. Thus the findings provide an insight indicating the way the city expands, while transforming urban fringe areas into urban, this needs to be appreciated by the inhabitants of respective areas, the actual key players and beneficiaries of the observed spatial change and development. We, therefore, recommend that respective LGAs be pro-active in the planning and executing of the urban development agenda. Social service delivery and administration of urban areas be uniformly applied while addressing issues in the entire areas of jurisdiction.

Key words: Urban transition, Street vendor’s perceptions, social services.

I. INTRODUCTION

Compared to other countries of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), Tanzania is urbanizing rapidly at the rate slightly higher than the SSA’s average, but not as high as that of East Asia countries (Collier and Jones, 2016). Since year 1967, cities of Tanzania have become home to over 30 million new residents (Wenban-Smith, 2014). Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, experiences the largest increase in population (Collier and Jones, 2016).

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