Doing Business in Tanzania-a Post Office Example
Just finished a month of activity trying to get a post office box in Singida-well almost finished. This is a pretty good example concerning some of the difficulties in doing business here. So I wanted to get a post office box here in town. The first thing I checked was if I could use the Hotel's post office box to receive packages or mail but it turns out they don't have a mailing address or post office box. I guess I should note there is no home mail delivery here.
So I enlisted William's help to get the box because many times my visa does not entitle me to do things of that nature (like I cannot cash a check at a bank using my visa). Between traveling attempts were made to get the forms for the post office box and get a price. Every time the person in charge of the boxes was not in the office and no one had the forms to give us. They all offered prices but every time we got a different price like 11,800 TSH, 28,000 TSH, 32,000 TSH, 38,000 TSH, 40,000 TSH and so forth.
Because we are both about to leave for a while and when we come back we are going to have a couple of the FDM board members with us keeping us very busy, we knew it had to be done early this week. First two visits got us the same answers as before the guy in charge was out and no one had any forms. We did fortunately know that I was going to need two passport photos to obtain the box.
So today we went and basically used the "camp out approach" in the lobby starting shortly after they opened. Again we were told the guy in charge of PO Boxes had gone out to try and sell the boxes to businesses in town. So we said call him, we are here to buy one here at his office. About four minutes later the guy comes walking out of the offices. After much discussion he went back to his office to copy the form (apparently he only has one at any given moment). Then the discussion about what type of box to get. This does not have to do with size but to register as an individual, NGO, business, government organization etc. The 11,800 TSH price was the base price for an individual box with out the key deposit. After a lengthy discussion it appears I had to get an NGO box under FDM of C (The Tanzania name of our ministry) for the whopping cost of 54,500 TSH and then annual renewal fees of 11,800 TSH. BTW this equals about $34 and $7.5 respectively.
So I filled out the forms handed over my passport pictures and money. It took about 20 minutes after that with mainly the guy going around looking for the forms necessary to set this up. The funniest part was when he made my id card (yes you have to have an id card more on that in a line or two) he kept having to get the person at the window to help him tear off the extra parts and show which things to give me and which to keep. The passport photos are so you can get an picture post office box renters id card that is required to pick up packages.
So I have an address now, but I still don't have the keys. From what I can figure out, they need to find them and so I have to go back tomorrow to get my keys for the post office box.
Now for those of you that dislike governments and want to put this off on them, no this is business as usual. As I mentioned in my blog about using Mpesa, it is common for the money withdrawal shops around town not to have money. My barber is there at the shop when he is at the shop. The grocery store closes at different times of the day and opens at different times. Sometimes a shop will close mid-day because they have something to do at home or they need to go pick something up for dinner that night. The only thing that never seems to close are the piki piki drivers all around town. The other interesting thing is what a shop will not have. Say a shop for cloth to make clothes, will often not have sewing needles, thread, buttons. Then a shop for sewing that does have thread will not have needles or will not have buttons. Electric shops often don't have basic items necessary for installing electrical systems. Plumbing will often not have teflon tape. They always seem to know who does and you can spend an entire day going through the shops to find who really has it. Hopefully you can remember so you can go back.
So I enlisted William's help to get the box because many times my visa does not entitle me to do things of that nature (like I cannot cash a check at a bank using my visa). Between traveling attempts were made to get the forms for the post office box and get a price. Every time the person in charge of the boxes was not in the office and no one had the forms to give us. They all offered prices but every time we got a different price like 11,800 TSH, 28,000 TSH, 32,000 TSH, 38,000 TSH, 40,000 TSH and so forth.
Because we are both about to leave for a while and when we come back we are going to have a couple of the FDM board members with us keeping us very busy, we knew it had to be done early this week. First two visits got us the same answers as before the guy in charge was out and no one had any forms. We did fortunately know that I was going to need two passport photos to obtain the box.
So today we went and basically used the "camp out approach" in the lobby starting shortly after they opened. Again we were told the guy in charge of PO Boxes had gone out to try and sell the boxes to businesses in town. So we said call him, we are here to buy one here at his office. About four minutes later the guy comes walking out of the offices. After much discussion he went back to his office to copy the form (apparently he only has one at any given moment). Then the discussion about what type of box to get. This does not have to do with size but to register as an individual, NGO, business, government organization etc. The 11,800 TSH price was the base price for an individual box with out the key deposit. After a lengthy discussion it appears I had to get an NGO box under FDM of C (The Tanzania name of our ministry) for the whopping cost of 54,500 TSH and then annual renewal fees of 11,800 TSH. BTW this equals about $34 and $7.5 respectively.
So I filled out the forms handed over my passport pictures and money. It took about 20 minutes after that with mainly the guy going around looking for the forms necessary to set this up. The funniest part was when he made my id card (yes you have to have an id card more on that in a line or two) he kept having to get the person at the window to help him tear off the extra parts and show which things to give me and which to keep. The passport photos are so you can get an picture post office box renters id card that is required to pick up packages. So I have an address now, but I still don't have the keys. From what I can figure out, they need to find them and so I have to go back tomorrow to get my keys for the post office box.
Now for those of you that dislike governments and want to put this off on them, no this is business as usual. As I mentioned in my blog about using Mpesa, it is common for the money withdrawal shops around town not to have money. My barber is there at the shop when he is at the shop. The grocery store closes at different times of the day and opens at different times. Sometimes a shop will close mid-day because they have something to do at home or they need to go pick something up for dinner that night. The only thing that never seems to close are the piki piki drivers all around town. The other interesting thing is what a shop will not have. Say a shop for cloth to make clothes, will often not have sewing needles, thread, buttons. Then a shop for sewing that does have thread will not have needles or will not have buttons. Electric shops often don't have basic items necessary for installing electrical systems. Plumbing will often not have teflon tape. They always seem to know who does and you can spend an entire day going through the shops to find who really has it. Hopefully you can remember so you can go back.
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