Exploiting the creativity of young Tanzanians will turn them into millionaires.That can be achieved if sufficient funding is extended to the national ICT business programme.
While the demand on ICT business incubator project is growing, the financial resources are still slim causing the project to depend more on foreign support, according to project’s Finance and Administrative manager Makange Mramba. The project is managed by the Commission for Science and Technology Tanzania (Costech).
Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, he said that the country could create many youth millionaires only if more funds were to be channelled to the incubator.
“We could have so many Bill Gates in the country ... Rwanda is doing very well in the ICT sub-sector,” he said. Mr Mramba said already some youth -- who have established a firm known as Digital Brain, which developed a software for selection of university students -- have already started receiving orders from other parts of Africa.
“Theirs is the first software in Africa, which is being used by Tanzania Commission for Universities,” he said.
According to him, the government of Sudan has applied for it, meaning that it would bring them money, and open up further opportunities for them.
Explaining the financial status, he said the World Bank recently funded $350,000 (Sh560 million), while the government had been setting aside $60,000 through Costech.
The national ICT business incubator project has 35 beneficiaries, out of them 20 are individuals and 15 are companies formed by Tanzanians, according to him.
One of beneficiaries of the project, BR Solutions offers SMS services known as Hudum Fasta for provision of information on such assets for sale as houses, plots, motor vehicles, as well as job opportunities and information on bank loans.
At a recent ICT trade fair, organised by Costech, the Vice President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Billal, challenged stakeholders and Costech to advice the government on the strategy to improve ICT-related businesses in the country. Formed in 2008 the ICT business incubator has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tanzania Investment Bank and Dar es Salaam Community Bank for provision of ICT business loans, according a Costech report.
Apart from financial constraints, ICT experts say that the sub-sector was facing other hurdles including low public awareness, weak human resource development and outdated law on ICT.
Assistant lecturer of ICT and development at the University of Dar es Salaam, Mr Hezron Makundi, said that there was an urgent need to review the 2004 ICT Act because it is outdated.
According to Mr Makundi, although Tanzania had an ICT Policy since 2003, the country has no specific legal framework to address the development and use of the sector.
He calls for enactment of effective cyber-laws to address related issues such as crime, data protection and electronic transaction.
By Ludger Kasumuni
The Citizen Reporter Dar es Salaam.
