IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

INFORMATION and Communication Technologies Commission (ICTC) has said the country is set to benefit from Estonia’s e-infrastructure knowledge.

The ICTC Director General, Dr Nkundwe Mwasaga, who is leading a delegation of 11 people visiting Estonia, said Tallinn – the capital and most populous city of Estonia,has developed ICT infrastructure and knowledge from which Tanzania can borrow a leaf.

The government is keen on rolling out policies that will facilitate the establishment of smart cities in Tanzania. To start with, the government insisted that it had earmarked Dodoma as a potential smart city.

Fielding questions from reporters here on Wednesday, Deputy Minister for Information and Communications Technology, Kundo Mathew said it was high time the country turned to smart cities to enhance citizen and government engagement.

Communication in 84 parastatals has been eased following success of e-government project, the House was informed.

The Minister for Infrastructure and Communication, Mr Juma Duni Haji, said that e-government is already in full swing in 50 institutions, while connections are in final stages in 34 parastatals.

Thanks to Zantel for the connections. E-government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses and other arms of government.

Tanzania will now have an electronic government authority that will enhance efficiency of electronic government services to the public provided by the e-government agency.

Members of Parliament approved the e-Government Bill 2019 here on Wednesday to enact the authority which will coordinate, oversee and promote electronic government initiatives and enforce policies, regulations, laws, standards and guidelines related to public institutions.

Addressing different public officials here on Friday, the Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Prof Makame Mbarawa, said after being connected with the network, the central government would be able to communicate with the regional authorities via the new technology.

Since ancient times Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT) have enabled and enhanced government in terms of both its management and its services.

The appearance of the somewhat phony and imprecise, however, popular term of e-government for electronic Government (or even shorter, e-gov) indicates that modern electronic ICT-enabled management and services in Public Administration, particularly those which are Internet or Intranet based, have reached relatively high degrees of public interest and demand.

This was stated by the Communication, Science and Technology minister Prof Makame Mbarawa in Dar es Salaam yesterday at a dissemination workshop on assessing the impact of ICT towards poverty reduction.

He said the move was aimed at training more skilled people to enhance competitiveness and better service delivery.

Apart from improving the sector, the programme also targets to improve efficiency and reduction of current costs that are incurred in implementing health care programmes.

As the government announces plans to issue tenders for the construction of e-health infrastructures and have all medical facilities in the country connected, it is reported that low human resource capacity in the health sector is occasioning under utilization of the country’s available electronic health facilities.

Director of the Tanzanian Training Center for International Health Prof Senga Pamba made the observation at an e-health workshop yesterday in Bagamoyo where he called for immediate intervention.

The government of Tanzania is championing the utilization of online services or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve delivery of government information and services to citizens.

One of notable government institutions which are committed to the use of ICT or online services is Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) which has embarked on electronic payment system (e-payment) as part of improving efficiency and modernising the port.

However, we hope that current attempts to connect districts to the National Information Communications Technology Broadband Infrastructure will help unlock the full potential that lies in IT.When completed, this project will revolutionise the delivery of goods and services. It will provide an opportunity for the country to embrace e-education, e-agriculture, e-commerce, e-government and telemedicine, among others.

IT systems, implemented ever more widely in all branches of the economy, also increasingly become tools for integration of various stages of transport process, transport modes, and transport offer of different entities functioning on the market.

E-ticketing technologies are increasingly used as tools for integrating public transport worldwide.

Tanzania’s development vision 2025 has identified that kind of enabling environment that is essential for the nation to flourish economically, socially, politically and culturally. It has taken into account expected changes and trends in the world of tomorrow. The implementation of the Vision will have to include developing Tanzania's position vis a vis those changes, and the need to deal with them through hard work, initiative, skills, as well as to make use of the many opportunities that will appear and the resources available in our country.

Today, a lot of government information is accessible online more than it was in the past. It is meant to engage the citizenry in governance and allows government transparency, as members of the public are informed of what the government is doing and the policies being implemented to facilitate social development.

E-government increases efficiency, improved services, better accessibility of public services and more transparency and accountability. E-government service managers need to be equipped with adequate skills and knowledge on how to develop services that will meet expectations of citizens.

Experts and students from Ardhi University in Dar es Salaam said on Tuesday that ICT was a motivation for development in all human activities, especially for urban development. They were speaking during a workshop for Women in ICT organised by Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada at Protea Courtyard Hotel Dar es Salaam.

The minister said that advancement of telemedicine could undermine privacy and security risks if not addressed properly as it involves mobile computing and networking.

The minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Prof Makame Mbarawa, told employees of an IT firm at the weekend that little knowledge of the English language of the majority of the people was also a big challenge to the realisation of the full potentials of the sector.

But what do these public-private partnerships (PPPs) look like in practice? I put this question to Laura Hosman, assistant professor of political science at the Illinois Institute of Technology, United States, who specialises in ICT for development (ICT4D) and such partnerships.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Friday, TaGLA's interim Executive Director, Mr Charles Senkondo, described a shift from TGDLC to TaGLA as a significant milestone in the government's capacity development.

Minister for Communication, Science and Technology Professor Makame Mbarawa says that resources to make sure that the initiatives go ahead as planned are available, arguing that President Jakaya Kikwete's government is committed to fully utilise ICT as a tool for rapid economic development.

"The government's commitment in research and development through science and technology cannot be overemphasized," Prof. Mbarawa points out. The national fibre-optic cable which is part of the East African Submarine System (EASSy) connecting 12 eastern and southern African countries to the global marine fibre-optic cable which was commissioned in 2008.

Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda endorsing NEC’s proposal said: “It is meant to clear doubts that always overwhelm the country’s elections.”

Pinda was responding to a question by opposition leader in the House, Freeman Mbowe during the Premier’s Question Session.