Dar es Salaam. The government of Tanzania announced recently that it has retained the service of an Estonian organisation in its efforts to transform the East African nation into a complete information society.
The Minister of Information, Communication and Information Technology Nape Nnauye told the parliament on May 20, 2022, that the Information and Communication Technologies Commission (ICTC) will collaborate with the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL) to undertake an ICT landscape assessment in the country.
ICTC is a government body mandated to promote and foster investment and development of the ICT industry in Tanzania while ITL is an umbrella body of technology and telecommunications companies and organisations in Estonia.
“In research, ICT Commission, in collaboration with the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL), has agreed to conduct ICT landscape assessment in the country,” reads part of the budget statement by Mr Nnauye.
The Mtama MP (Chama cha Mapinduzi – CCM) made the revelation during his ministry’s budget presentation in parliament on May 20, 2022.
The activity is part of the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between ICTC and ITL, according to the budget presentation. The assessment is expected to be undertaken in June 2022.
In August 2020, the Estonia Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL) signed an MoU with the East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), an organisation tasked with the mandate to promote science and technologies across all East African Community member states.
Tanzania has been pushing for the achievement of various strides in its Digital Tanzania ambition, which look to increase usage, access, and delivery of services through digital means.
With the $150 million funding from the World Bank, the Digital Tanzania Project seeks to increase access to high-quality broadband internet services for government, businesses and citizens, and to improve the government’s capacity to deliver digital public services.
The project’s implementation has been in the offing with many activities expected to be implemented in the budget year 2022/2023 which will commence in July 2022.
The Northern European nation of Estonia is considered to be one of the leading nations when it comes to e-governance in the world.
In the 2020 United Nations E-Government Survey, Estonia was ranked third in the e-governance index. Tanzania, on its hand, stood at 152 out of the 193 UN Member States.
This means that there is more that Tanzania can learn from Estonia when it comes to ICTs and e-governance in general.
