The government plans to expand the scope of education sponsorship for students who achieve high performance in Advanced Level Secondary School national examinations, enabling them to pursue studies in data science disciplines, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related sciences.
Speaking in Parliament during the presentation of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s budget, Minister Adolf Mkenda said the program will be known as Mama Samia Scholarship Extended for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Allied Sciences.
“The aim of the Samia Scholarship Extended program is to produce highly skilled experts in data science who can compete and work anywhere in the world,” said Mkenda, who is also the Member of Parliament for Rombo constituency.
He explained that the implementation strategy is divided into three main stages. The first stage involves building the capacity of students who have completed Form Six through a special camp to prepare them to join top universities worldwide in data science fields.
The second stage involves helping these camp-trained students secure admissions to various international universities and assisting them in finding scholarships. The third stage is to fund undergraduate graduates to further specialize through institutions such as the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology and the Indian Institute of Science and Technology, Zanzibar campus.
Through the existing Samia Scholarship program, Minister Mkenda stated that the government has provided funding worth 7.29 billion Tanzanian shillings to support 646 first-year students, 674 continuing undergraduate students, and 80 master’s degree students who have demonstrated outstanding performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields.
Furthermore, for the first time in the last financial year, the government began offering scholarships to Tanzanian students pursuing advanced degrees in nuclear science and technology abroad under the Samia Extended Scholarship, with five students benefiting so far.
“The government, through the Samia Extended Scholarship, will continue to support high-performing Tanzanians in the field of Nuclear Science and Technology at the undergraduate level to enable them to proceed to advanced studies,” Mkenda emphasized.
For the 2025/26 financial year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has requested a budget of 2.44 trillion Tanzanian shillings for recurrent and development expenditure, compared to the 1.97 trillion shillings budget for 2024/25—an increase of 23%.
