Fix the data today, grow the business tomorrow

DAR ES SALAAM: IN the first part of this conversation, we exposed how bad data quietly erodes business profits, leaking revenue, slowing decisions and misleading leaders.

But if that was the diagnosis, this second part is about the treatment.

Because Tanzania’s data problem is not a lack of data. It’s a lack of data governance and proper utilisation.

Businesses across the country are collecting thousands of data points daily from mobile transactions and customer calls to sales entries and delivery notes.

But without a clear strategy for cleaning, storing and analysing that data, most of it ends up as digital clutter.

Or worse, as conflicting “truths” that divide teams and paralyse decisions. Let’s say a distributor pulls revenue data from a sales app, while the finance team uses QuickBooks and the warehouse relies on Excel.

The marketing team pulls customer numbers from Instagram metrics. Come Monday morning, four teams report four different versions of what happened last week.

What follows is not strategy, it’s debate. All of a sudden, the sales team is blamed for weak revenue, while they insist the problem is marketing.

The finance team delays reports because they need to “reconcile numbers.” And the CEO spends the week chasing explanations instead of planning growth.

This is not a tech problem. It’s a governance problem. And it’s costing businesses millions. Data governance is not just IT stuff.

It’s the set of rules, roles and processes that ensure your data is consistent, trustworthy and useful.

It defines Who owns what data, Where that data is stored, How it’s cleaned, verified and updated, Who gets to access it and When.

In Tanzania, the shift to mobile money, online payments, digital lending and automated tax systems has created a flood of data.

Every business whether a bakery or a fintech, is now sitting on more data than it had five years ago.

But most still operate as if it’s 2012. According to the East African Data Governance Initiative, only 14 per cent of Tanzanian businesses have a documented data management policy.

Fewer than 8.0 per cent regularly audit their data flows. And in over 50 per cent of companies surveyed, the person responsible for data is also responsible for “just making sure Excel doesn’t crash.”

That’s not sustainable. Because while local companies are still trying to figure out which Excel tab to trust, global competitors are using machine learning to optimise pricing in real time.

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Kenyan banks are deploying AI to detect fraud before it happens.

Even small Ugandan e-commerce startups are using automated analytics to target high-value customers daily.

We’re not just falling behind. We’re giving away the future. In boardrooms across Tanzania, we need to move beyond “Do we have the numbers?” to “Do we trust the numbers?”

Because decision-making today is not about who’s loudest. It’s about who’s clearest. What percentage of our data is clean, validated and up-to-date?

Who owns data quality in our organisation and are they empowered?

Are our decisions data-driven or just data-assisted guesses?

Do all departments use the same definitions (e.g., active customer, churned account)?

Can we track KPIs in real time, or do we wait for monthend PDFs? When was the last time we audited our core datasets? If the answers are fuzzy, it means profits are too.

Most Tanzanian businesses are still struggling with data. That means the ones who fix it first will leap ahead fast.

You don’t need to be the biggest company. You just need to be the smartest with your systems. When your numbers are right, you spend less time debating and more time building.

You stop reacting and start predicting. You launch the right product at the right time, target the right customers and spend with intention not instinct. And that’s not just operational excellence.

That’s market domination. It’s time we stopped thinking of data as an “IT problem” and started seeing it as a strategic weapon.

Because in the era ahead, the real boardroom power won’t come from who has the most trucks, branches, or products. It’ll come from who has the clearest view.