In Tanzania, urban frontier development is characterized by the emergence of urban centers spatially located in what is usually perceived as rural areas. The Tanzanian government has responded with the creation of a new category of ‘small towns’, which includes almost one hundred such centres, but there is no specific policy for them. In this paper we explore how social and spatial transformations in dynamic rural regions are driving this transformation from rural to urban places and discusses how this rapid process is necessitating new and transferable structures of governance. The analysis is based on field data collected in four emerging urban centres (EUCs) in Tanzania (2011-14) all characterized by particular drop related agricultural economic dynamics that stimulates early transformation, but decrease in importance as urbanization takes over. In the paper we investigate this transition and detect how the EUCs become important places of attraction, not only to people in the immediate rural hinterland, but also from distant regions of Tanzania. Also, we explore the governance challenges that local administrators, community groups, business owners are envisaging and discuss the importance of stimulating and supporting EUC development, not only in their own right but also as an important policy action to stimulate poverty reduction.