Africa-Press – Tanzania. MOBILE phone subscribers in the country transacted a whopping 170.5tri/-
on the digital platform in a period of nine months, from July 2020 to April, this year, the Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Dr Faustine Ndugulile told Parliament yesterday.
Tabling the Ministry’s 2021/22 budget, Dr Ndugulile said the amount was from 2,860,988,609 transactions during the stated period. The Minister tabled 216.3bn/- budget for the coming fiscal year.
He expressed his ministry’s commitment, which focuses on transforming the country into a digital economy nation. Dr Ndugulile told parliament that at least 25bn/- has been earmarked for the purpose in the 2021/22 financial year.
The minister further said his ministry is also looking forward to boost revenues from the Teletraffic Management System (TTMS), which is administered by the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) from mobile companies’ operators. He said with strong strategies on the ground, the coming fiscal year will see an increase of revenue from the said area.
He said the increase in mobile money transaction has been necessitated by the increase of mobile phone subscribers, whereas in 2020, TCRA registered 48,939,530 SIM cards which made the total of registered number to be 53,063,085 as of April this year.
Dr Ndungulile said the government through the Universal Communications Services Access Fund (UCSAF) is working hard to ensure an increase of geographical network coverage in the country.
“The coverage is now 66 per cent, with UCSAF, we are looking forward to reach more areas, especially in rural areas,” he noted.
He expressed the government commitment to ensure strict control and monitoring to tap linkages through which the state was losing revenue from diverging international calls, whereas 3,165 culprits were nabbed and the cases are in courts.
Dr Ndungulile said the government is taking measures to ensure everyone is involved in the digital agenda by creating an enabling environment in building up the digital economy.
“We are aware of the importance of technology and innovation, these are basics to improved efficiency and productivity,” he said.
Dr Ndugulile said TCRA has already announced a tender to invite various stakeholders to partner with for establishment of a smartphone assembly factory in the country.
“As we campaign for the national fibre- optic backbone to reach 80 percent of the population, we should also make sure that ICT devices such as smart phones are available in the country at affordable prices.
He said that digital economy is currently the main agenda as the world goes through the fourth industrial revolution which is based on technology.
He said they will provide space to innovators, policy makers, funders, researchers and other players in innovation ecosystem to share what they have been working on, learn from and inspire each other, collaborate cross sectors and transform Tanzania through the scaling innovation.
Dr Ndungulile said the digital Tanzania project is set to bring changes by increasing employment opportunities through innovations as well as improving small and medium enterprises by guaranteeing accessibility of reliable internet services among others.
They will also construct one major ICT innovation hub and other small hub centers in Mbeya, Mwanza and Arusha as well as having strong and secure e-government services system.
