DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 10 -- MOST businesses in Tanzania are sitting on valuable data. Sales records. Customer transactions. Loan books. Inventory logs. Website traffic. Mobile usage. Yet many decisions are still made the old way. By instinct. By habit. By copying competitors. That gap is costing money.

Across sectors, data has quietly shifted from being a reporting tool to a profit tool. Companies that understand this are growing margins, cutting waste and moving faster than the rest. Those that do not are guessing. And guessing is expensive. The difference is not technology. It is how data is used.

In banking, retail, telecoms and logistics, the same pattern appears. Dashboards exist. Reports are produced. Monthly numbers are circulated....