During the early years of Tanzania's independence, social services and poverty level were better. However, over time, the situation changed as quality and quantity of social services, and individual income levels reversed. While this paper is putting into perspective the poverty situation in Tanzania, an effort is made to review and assess the causes for such reversals putting more emphasis on poverty­ reducing financing activities. lt is suggested that supporting poverty reducing activities in Tanzania has been disappointing and therefore a new working outlook needs to be pursued for effective poverty eradication.