TANZANIA’S communication sector has improved significantly during the last six decades, with the construction and expansion of the National Information Communication Technology Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) infrastructure being the most notable.
As the country marks 61st anniversary of independence, the government says that NICTBB has aided service providers in delivering communication services to the public more quickly, reliably, and cost-effectively, thus accelerating national development by allowing citizens to use ICT.
The government says NICTBB facilitates the rapid transfer of high-quality data and information, contributing to the development of the telecommunications sector and thus to the nation’s economic growth.
The benefits of NICTBB, according to the government, include a reduction in mobile phone interconnection fees from 115/- per minute in 2009 to 10.4/- in 2020. Enduser costs have decreased because of the reduction, and telecommunications services have been more commonly used.
The sector’s growth is reflected in the increased use of mobile phones, the internet, financial transactions and the proliferation of various online service delivery systems. The government data shows that on December 9, 1961, the then Tanganyika had 16,238 landline phones in use across the country, most of which belonged to government institutions and departments.
There were 53,111,246 mobile phone lines and 71,405 landline phones in June 2021. Internet users surpassed 29,152,713 for the first time since the country’s independence.
According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) sector performance report for 1st Quarter 2022 shows an increase in the number of telecom subscriptions.
The subscription has increased to 58.1 million subscriptions from 56.2 million subscriptions in June 2022. It is an increase of 3.4 percent SIM cards in the market.
The trend of telecom subscriptions for the past five years shows an increasing trend with an average increase of 8 per cent per annum. Penetration rate has also been increasing at 4 percent per annum.
On internet services, statistics presented in the report shows that internet subscriptions and usage is also on the increase. Subscriptions are presented based on the number of lines subscribing to internet services and usage is in terms of data traffic.
The annual internet subscription shows an average growth rate of 17 per cent. In 2017 there were 16,106,636 subscribers and increased to 29,103,482 subscribers at the end of 2021. Money transactions are also on the increasing value, thanks to a rise in access and use of digital platforms by mobile telecommunication companies that are helping to boost financial inclusion.
TCRA’s June 2022 statistics show the value of mobile money transactions increased by 8.6 per cent to 11.608tri/- in June this year from 10.689tri/- in May as more and more Tanzanians and non-Tanzanians use digital platforms of mobile network operators.
The value of mobile money transactions had increased by 3.6 per cent in May from 10.321tri/- in April, the statistics show. The April figures were 3.6 percent down from March where the value of mobile money transactions reached 10.703tri/-, after rising by 12.2 per cent from 9.539tri/- in February. On a yearly basis, the value of mobile transcription increased from 101.87tri/- in 2019 to 127.943tri/- in 2020 and 137.2tri/- in 2021.
From January to June this year the value reached 63.2tri/-, TCRA statistics show. Tanzania registered 4.2 million more mobile money subscribers in a one year period from June 2021 to June 2022.
As of June 2022, Tanzania had 37.4 million mobile money accounts up from 33.2 million in June 2021, TCRA data show. With such success in mind, the government is determined to ensure that all wards in Tanzania will be connected to the NICTBB by 2026.
This is part of the country’s strategy to ensure 80 per cent internet penetration in the country by 2025, the Deputy Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology, Kundo Mathew said in Dar es Salaam recently. Eng Kundo explained that Tanzania’s communications policies, licensing framework and legal, regulatory and institutional framework had contributed to the growth of the sector.
He added that by September 2022, the teledensity had reached 64 per cent; there were 58.1 million registered SIM cards; 31.1 million internet users and 39.6 million mobile money accounts. He said that licences had also increased, with the applications service category jumping by almost 40 per cent within a year, from 66 in July 2021 to 111 in November 2022.
Applications services were among the four main categories of the converged licensing framework (CLF) Tanzania introduced in 2005.
The other categories, with the number of licences in brackets, are Network facilities (22), Network services (13), Television stations (61) and Radio stations (218).
A new category for online content, introduced in 2018 has 390 online televisions. The deputy minister described Tanzania’s recent auction of the frequency spectrum in four prime bands Tanzania as crucial in accelerating Tanzania’s digital strategy.
Eleven blocks of four international mobile telecommunications bands were successfully auctioned in October and winning bidders were given roll-out obligations.
The country is expected to earn 187 million US dollars from the auctioned 11 blocks of spectrum in the 700 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands on October 11, 2022, whereby some spectrum were bought at almost thrice the reserved price.
“Tanzania has adopted pro-ICT policies and a supportive legal and regulatory framework towards building an ICT-driven nation consisting of knowledge-based society,” he said.
He mentioned some of the sector policies and acts as the National ICT Policy 2016, the National Postal Policy 2003, which is being reviewed, the National Broadcasting Policy 2003 and the Electronic and Postal Communications Act 2010 (EPOCA) and its regulations.
Others are the Electronic Transactions Act 2015, the Cybercrimes Act 2015 and the Data Protection Bill, which was passed by Parliament earlier this month.
Eng Kundo also said that Tanzania has made progress on the programme to provide and manage physical addresses as part of the country’s digital transformation strategy.
“The programme will ensure that all citizens are accessible through their physical addresses; therefore, facilitating their participation and involvement in electronic transactions and e-commerce”, he explained.
It is expected that all individuals and businesses will have physical addresses by the end of the year, he added.
