Enhancing Opportunity

Abstract

Kamsoni and Ntogo are two small villages in northwestern Tanzania. Geographically, they are close to each other; economically, they are far apart.

Located in the northern part of Kagera, Kamsoni is close to the Tanzania—Uganda border and is a major center of trade. A high-quality tarmac road, built in 2003, links the village to the regional capital of Kagera on one side and to the Ugandan border and Kampala on the other. Public transportation is available at least 10 times a day in both directions. Residents of Kamsoni engaged in various businesses, exporting agricultural produce, loading trucks, changing currency, and so on. A woman in the village spoke of the expanded set of choices that her community’s location offered her. “During the harvest, I can sell crops to either country. Things like clothes and other assorted goods are cheaper here compared to other areas in Bukoba Rural District. A lot of people are seen coming here to purchase these goods. This gives me the feeling that in other places such goods are expensive, though I have never been there to compare.”

As the crow flies, Ntogo is not far away from Kamsoni. It is by Lake Victoria, also close to the Ugandan border. The location offers residents some advantages: a large majority of them depend on fishing as a source of income and also engage in cross-border trade …. [But,] unlike the good tarmac road serving Kamsoni, a dirt road leads to Ntogo. It ends abruptly at a swampy area prone to flooding, near the outlet of the Kagera river into Lake Victoria.