High-capacity internet services at doorsteps in TZ
TANZANIA : MORE than one million people in the country will have access to and directly benefit from high capacity, super speed Last-Mile Internet Connectivity by year 2027, under the government’s special drive to digitalise the country and improve delivery of social-economic services to the people.
Speaking on behalf of the Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology Mr Nape Nnauye at the launch event of the 41st Administrative Council of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) in Arusha on Tuesday, the Deputy Minister at the docket Engineer Kundo Mathew told the delegates that the move was under a special government’s initiative.
Eng Mathew told the PAPU Administrative Council delegates from 45 member states and special invited participants that the success in propagation of digital infrastructure in the rural parts of the country follows a deliberate move by the government under President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, who released 21bn/- last year for the accomplishment of Post code System, a key infrastructure in Postal Services.
Among other invitees are from Universal Postal Union (UPU), East African Communications Organisation (EACO), Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The deputy minister said that success realised in the establishment of Postcode and Physical Addressing System in Tanzania has resulted into building of Fibre to Home backed by reliable Submarine Optic Cables, including one of the highest capacities with 160 Terabits that President Samia launched last year.
He said people in Tanzania now cherish getting various social and economic services within short time at high speed and in super quality, contrary to the past when they had to walk long distances and spend hours in long queues before getting a service.
“Today people are simply using digital platforms to get various services which they used to labour before getting in the past, like sending and receiving money through mobile phones, buying token for electric power, paying water bills, paying for medical services and on-line purchase of various goods like the one offered through ‘Posta Kiganjani’ app,” said Eng Mathew.
The deputy minister said despite such efforts Tanzania cannot operate in isolation in building an efficient, reliable Postal Sector, which is enabled digitally in conformity to global trends and has so from the earliest stage of establishment of Postal Services in the African continent.
“The government of Tanzania has been following with keen interest the affairs of the Pan Africa Postal Union. For a long time, PAPU has been facing a lot of challenges including inadequate human capacity to perform duties optimally,” he said.
The engineer insisted that Tanzania as a member of PAPU will support the General Secretariat and the entire Union in its human resource capacitation endeavours as well as assisting it financially in line with the Host Agreement to ensure that it fulfils its mandate in Africa.
“Therefore, I would like to implore the PAPU to take of market trends into full consideration as it develops its future strategic plans and thereafter encourage the sector out there to offer customers more efficient, qualified, secure and convenient services,” he said.
Eng Mathew added that in particular, PAPU should commit to encourage public postal players in the continent to actively engage in the inclusive socio-economic development activities of African countries in line with the AU Agenda 2063: ‘The Africa We Want’, the Regional Development Plan (RDP) for Africa, as well as its own blueprint the PAPU Strategic Plan 2022-2025 which places emphasis on digitalisation to ensure that the continent is not left behind in the implementation of the overall Abidjan Postal Strategy.
The 41st Ordinary PAPU administrative council meeting will culminate into the inauguration event of PAPU headquarters here in Arusha owned jointly by PAPU and the government of Tanzania, through Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in ratio of 60 to 40 per cent.orter
