Digital clubs to push digitalisation

DAR ES SALAAM: TANZANIA is promoting a culture of innovation and creativity, as part of its strategy to mainstream the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) in the country.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Information Technology, Mr Mohammed Khamis Abdulla stated this in Dar es Salaam recently, when launching the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) handbook on the procedures for formation and coordination of digital club.

Mr Abdulla said the ministry had set targets of building talents and innovations from the primary school level. The ministry is working with the ICT Commission to manage the formation of digital clubs involving youths at all educational levels, he added.

The clubs would enable youths to apply their talents and innovation potentials to pursue their dreams while promoting an innovation culture in the country.

They would also create employment, build critical thinking skills among youths, address and overcome their challenges.

The Permanent Secretary explained that digital clubs were an essential component of the Digital Tanzania Project, which seeks to promote ICT use among Tanzanians.

They are platforms for youths in peer groups to improve their awareness of opportunities created by technology and digital applications, he explained.

For example, students may identify issues in their locations and discuss ways of addressing them through ICTs and digital applications, he said.

TCRA Director General, Dr Jabiri Bakari said the programme was part of the authority’s determination to promote, among youths, interest in ICTs and awareness and understanding of their potential.

“The clubs would improve their skills and readiness to fully participate in the digital economy from lower education levels to universities,” he noted.

“The clubs would also build students’ interests in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), basic subjects for careers in ICTs,” he added.

“TCRA would cooperate with other education sector stakeholders, including teachers and students in tertiary institutions and universities in the digital clubs’ programme,” Dr Bakari said.

“TCRA will review and update the guidebook to accommodate new technologies and their applications,” he said.

Dr Bakari assured ICT innovators in the country that the Government through TCRA would continue officering scarce, valuable resources of frequency spectrum, numbering, domain names and Postcode free of charge to those involved in coming up with new ICT solutions that would benefit communities from different lifestyles.