Tanzania is yet to effectively perfect the E-commerce sector especially when it comes to selling products, goods and services abroad.
It has been observed that IT developers, e-retailers and other users are still facing challenges that refrain them from penetrating, competing and taking advantage of the global digital markets.
That came to light during commemoration of the 43 years’ anniversary of Africa Post Day event held in Dodoma City, under the auspices of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU).
Speaking at the event, the Director General of the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Dr Jabiri Kuwe Bakari however assured that the government was already working to address the problems.
The Postal Services Anniversary runs under the theme of ‘The Post: An established promoter of cross-border e-commerce in Africa’, incorporated a series of relevant presentations and awareness creation and was also used to observe 43 years of establishment of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU).
According to Dr Bakari some of the pitfalls in Tanzania’s e-commerce sector include Poor or outdated technologies, language barriers, stifling policies as well as both local and international licenses.
“The government is working to iron out a number of professional and technical hiccups that tend to hinder the development of e-commerce in Tanzania,” he revealed.
For majority of Tanzanian businesspeople, the restriction of PayPal transactions in Tanzania is said to be among the biggest shortcoming in the country’s e-commerce sector.
The TCRA is on the other hand conducting quarterly joint service quality evaluation, in the bid to ensure that Internet service providers (ISPs), telecommunications companies (telcos), broadcasting, and the entire communication sector across the country comply and meet the required quality criteria.
The Communication watchdog also continue to stand professional in regulating the country’s electronic and postal communications, as well as managing spectrums.
On his side, the minister of Information, Communications and Information Technology, Nape Nnauye said the communication sector was playing a paramount role in helping accelerate service delivery as well as socioeconomic development in the country.
It was also stated that the government was working to increase investment pace towards all key areas of the sectors, including internet, information, post and transformation.
Rolling out postcodes services across the country and the strengthening of the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) were some of the good examples to prove how keen the government was striving to have the sector grow professionally and profitably.
“Our focus, among others, is to enable Tanzania to become a major e-commerce hub for East and Central Africa by 2030,” he expressed.
Minister Nnauye insisted that the sector serves as a chief driver to speed up service delivery and efficiency of several potential sectors in the country, ranging from Tourism, Banks, Factories, E-government, Mining, Health, Agriculture and environment, to mention but a few.
Dr Sifundo Chief Moyo, is the PAPU’s Secretary General who observes that it was fascinating to see the professional manner to which the Tanzania Post Corporation (TPC) was conducting its activities in this digital era.
Dr Moyo said there is however the need for the state-owned corporation to team up with the like-minded institutes and stakeholders to upskill performance of its workers, especially when it comes to adopting the advanced digital services.
He assured that with its administrative headquarters in Arusha, PAPU will always remain keen to cooperate with TCRA and TPC to ensure the general advancement of the sector.
The Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) is a specialized institution of the African Union. Its main objective is to coordinate all activities aimed at developing postal services on the African continent.
PAPU was established by the constitutive Plenipotentiary Conference of African ministers in charge of postal services, held in 1980 in Arusha, Tanzania.
The Conference had been convened by the OAU Secretary General following a decision by African Heads of State and Government during their summit in Libreville, Gabon, of 2nd to 6th July in 1977.
The Union was established by the Heads of State and Government of the then Organization of African Union (OAU), pursuant to a Resolution taken during the aforementioned meeting in Libreville.
Thereafter, the Convention formally establishing PAPU as a specialized agency of the OAU was signed during the Constitutive Plenipotentiary Conference held on 18th January 1980 in Arusha.
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