(Ecofin Agency) - Tanzania aims to connect at least 75% of its population to broadband internet. To achieve that goal, the executive is increasing investments to strengthen the national telecom infrastructure. 

Last Monday, incumbent telecom operator Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) signed a partnership agreement with the local subsidiary of Chinese technology company Huawei. The agreement aims at extending the national ICT broadband backbone (NICTBB) to 23 districts of the country for Tsh 37.3 billion ($15.9 million).

The project, scheduled to be completed within a maximum of six months from the agreement signing date, will add 1,520 kilometers to the ICT broadband backbone. The new agreement comes about two weeks after Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan recommended that TTCL, having failed as a mobile operator, should focus on providing broadband services. Indeed, the incumbent operator has been inactive in the Tanzanian telecom market for more than a decade, despite having access to the broadband telecom infrastructure deployed by the government. 

This project will accelerate the implementation of plans to deploy high-speed information and communication technology (ICT) backbone network to improve the use of ICT in all sectors for sustainable socio-economic development. In March 2022, TTCL signed an agreement with Huawei for the deployment and expansion of the mobile and fixed telecom network in the countryside. Later that year, the two partners also deployed a high-speed internet network on Mount Kilimanjaro.

“The move to connect all districts in the country with the NICTBB is in line with plans to make Tanzania a communication hub in the African region," said ICT Minister Nape Nnauye.

Isaac K. Kassouwi