IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

A similar continental conference took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, last year and was attended by 1,702 participants. Our staff Writer JUDICA TARIMO interviewed Tanzania Global Learning Agency (TaGLA) interim Executive Director Charles Senkondo on how Tanzania will benefit from the continental conference and its relevance to Africa’s future. Excerpts...

The advice has been given by the Minister of Communication, Science and Technology, Prof. Makame Mbarawa when addressing the Great Rift Valley ICT Summit in Dar es Salaam.

UNCTAD has assessed the state of play in the two countries and identified policy actions required to harness e-commerce for development.

Tanzania is well-positioned to integrate into the global digital economy, thanks to its growing economy and a rapidly developing innovation ecosystem, a new UNCTAD assessment says.

The assessment of the country’s readiness to engage in e-commerce has revealed its potential to become a leading contender in online trade in east Africa, especially on mobile finance and digital payment fronts.

The Director of Human Resources in the President's Office, Public Sector Management, Mr Faisal Issa, said that there is need for more expertise and well trained ICT professionals in the public sector in order to ensure smooth implementation of e government.

The Minister for Communications and Transport, Prof. Mark Mwandosya, made the initiative public last Friday before members of the Parliamentary Infrastructure Committee in Dar es Salaam.

Speaking during a two-day workshop on National and Sectoral Strategies for E-Government on Thursday in Dar es Salaam, Enock Mpenzwa, said that apart from the shortage those available were under utilised.

The cable, which will be officially switched on by President Jakaya Kikwete, is expected to fundamentally change much of the underlying economics of the communications business.

Laying down the foundation stone for Network Management Centre, he said the proposed building will boost the state's effort to put up electronic governance into practice.

Chief Secretary Philemon Luhanjo said, “We are creating an e-government that will be operational soon and it will drastically change the way we do things and manage our resources.”

Mr Luhanjo said that the e-governance will increase the speed of conducting business in government departments, simplify some of the financial procedures and make government machinery more transparent to the public.

The move brings the hope of increased efficiency and reduced Internet charges in Tanzania.

The backbone, which is the terrestrial continuation of the fibre optic submarine cables that landed in Dar es Salaam recently, has already led to a 99 per cent drop in Internet capacity charges.

The CSSC expert in Arusha, Ms Pauline Kimollo, said patients spend a shorter time at dispensaries, health centres and hospitals currently applying the technology, as were the case before.

He told Parliament in Dodoma yesterday that the process to get the contractor for the apparently highly-fancied $176m (approx. 200bn/-) job aimed at introducing compulsory ID cards to all Tanzanian citizens has already started.

“As we prepare to venture into the application of e-government, we are improving the record management systems for all ministries, departments and agencies in the country,” he said.

Nida executive director said in Dar es Salaam that the process of engaging the company that would produce the IDs was in the final stages.

The $176 million (about Sh200 billion) project has been delayed for decades now with documents, meetings and tendering moving from one office to the other. And now it has attracted the international community, including the World Bank.

“Financial crimes in our local banks are getting serious although I can’t quantify,” PCCB director-general Edward Hoseah said. “Indeed e-crimes have made the fighting of financial crimes more difficult, demanding high level technical skills and sophisticated equipment and software to tackle.”

But he told a forum on challenges in the auditing of public organisations in Dar es Salaam on Friday that the bureau was cooperating with other financial and security organs to curb the problem.

The advanced use of information and communication technology makes it possible for a single doctor to attend to more patients than by depending on conventional methods while also making prescriptions on-line.

The Bugando Referral Hospital in Mwanza has a telemedicine unit that connects Rubya and Kibondo hospitals. The remote hospitals are supplied with a computer, a scanner and a digital camera.

The country is one of three in sub-Saharan Africa that will benefit from the credit, amounting to $151 million, approved last week by the World Bank's board of executive directors.

The International Development Association (IDA) is a financial arm of the World Bank.

The Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) Chief of Marketing and Sells Officer, Peter Ngota told journalists during the Capacity Africa 2013 conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the trend is encouraging.