Technical and Scale Efficiency of Tanzanian Saving and Credit Cooperatives

In measuring technical and scale efficiency of Tanzanian Saving and Credit Cooperatives we used a sample of 103 audited financial statements during 2011. Data envelopment analysis was employed to explore the efficiency scores. The results show that average scores are 42%, 52% and 76% for technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies respectively. Since most of the inefficiencies are either technical or scale in nature, the study recommends increasing the operating scale for smaller firms. Firms operating beyond the optimal scale may need to downsize. Also the managers from technically inefficient firms should reduce the waste of the productive resources by utilizing their inputs more efficiently.