AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Universal Communication Service Access Fund (UCSAF) has signed contracts with mobile network operators to provide telecommunications services to 1,057 wards in 3,392 villages in the country.
This was said by UCSAF Chief Executive Officer Jestina Mashiba at the opening of the Tanzania Digital Innovation Dialogue and challenges in implementing rural telecoms projects held at the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (Costech) Hall in Dar es Salaam.
The CEO said, according to the contracts, contractors would be required to complete the remaining work by October this year as more than 600 of those wards had already been reached.
Deputy Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kundo Mathew speaking at the opening of the dialogue said the government was committed to ensuring technology was a catalyst for development in the country.
He said the telecommunications policy of 2003 which was reviewed in 2016 was still working and they were in a process of drafting a telecommunications law to cover all areas.
Mr Mathew urged stakeholders in the telecommunications sector to discuss challenges they faced so that the government could address them and install towers.
“There are challenges and I have asked contractors to meet with us to explain what challenges they are facing. It is not possible for some to spend nine months while others spend two to three months only to complete the work,” said Mr Mathew.
He called on innovators and system experts to help the government move faster and make the country’s systems work effectively and efficiently.
“Innovators need to tell us how we use our systems to change where we live not just to call or know how to use a computer. Unless you know what you’re doing … that’s what we need to know. Experts must tell us where they are stuck,” insisted Mr Mathew.
He said UCSAF continued assessing where telecommunications had reached and to what quality as the government was committed to providing more funds to enable where there was no business so that they could install the towers to reduce operational costs.
“All rural and urban communities need to be in touch. The government has provided funds where there is no business attraction to motivate mobile operators to invest in area. UCSAF continues assessing where telecommunications have reached in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar and to what extent,” said Mr Mathew
