DAR ES SALAAM, March 19 -- FOR decades, Tanzanias development ambitions were tethered to external aid and debt.

As the Presidential Commission on Tax Reforms submitted its blueprint to President Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday, a decisive shift is taking shape: the era of dependency is giving way to self-financing.

By targeting a tax-to-GDP ratio of 18 per cent, the country is moving to underwrite its own future—reviving Mwalimu Julius Nyereres enduring philosophy of self-reliance. The progress is real.

Tanzania has lifted its tax-to-GDP ratio from around 10 per cent in 2004/05 to 13.3 per cent in 2025. Yet the gap with the Sub-Saharan African average of about 16 per cent remains.

Closing that distance would unlock trillions of sh...