A Challenge of Business Record Keeping for Tanzania Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): A Case of Madukani Ward- Dodoma Region

Abstract

The realization of the significant roles played by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in economic development and the crucial values attached to record keeping in performances and development of SMEs has attracted multiple researchers. However, little emphasis has so far been given to understand as to how SMEs business owners themselves feel about record keeping for their business.The study therefore aimed to assess the general attitude of SMEs owners from Madukani ward- Dodoma on record keeping and its challenges emanating therein. Achieving this objective, the paper adopts a quantitative and qualitative approach in which a semi structured questionnaire was used as the main data collection method and supplemented with in depth interview and observation methods. The findings indicate that the SMEs have many issues triggers to have negative attitudes in compliance to proper record keeping for their business, including cost associated, Time consuming and Tax avoidance . However, the current study found that, this attitude has been largely contributed due to inadequate education and training in particularly record keeping skill and knowledge area and the absence of guidelines that equally to their size of their business. The paper concludes that a concerted effort should be made by the government and other stakeholders to set out proper guidelines for record keeping and proposes that SMEs owners be trained on key skills for records and information management.

Keywords: Small and Medium Sized Entities (SMEs), Record keeping, Business owner’s perceptions and Education