Abstract. Full text article available at http://ijsrd.com/Article.php?manuscript=IJSRDV1I8020Big data has been referred to as a forefront pillar of any modern analytics application. Together with Hadoop which is open source software, they have emerged to be a solution to the processing of massive generated both structured and unstructured data. With different strategies and initiatives taken by governments and private institutions in the world towards deployment and support of big data analytics and hadoop, Africa cannot be left isolated. In this paper, we assessed the readiness of Africa with a case study of Tanzania in harnessing the power of big data analytics and hadoop as a tool for drawing insights that might help them make crucial decisions. We used a survey in collecting the data using questionnaires. Results reveal that majority of the companies are either not aware of the technologies or still in their infancy stages in using big data analytics and hadoop. We identified that most companies are in either awakening or advancing stages of the big data continuum. This is attributed by challenges such as lack of IT skills to manage big data projects, cost of technology infrastructure, making decision on which data are relevant, lack of skills to analyze the data, lack of business support and deciding on what technology is best compared to others. It has also been found out that most of the companies' IT officers are not aware with the concepts and techniques of big data analytics and hadoop.