Growth in Africa’s Internet and broadband sector has accelerated
in recent years. While being the world’s most rapidly growing market for mobile
telephony. Africa is also the home to some of the fastest growing fixed-line
market in the world. Believe it or not until mid-2010 mobile users constituted around
90% of all African telephone subscribers due to problem in penetration of the
physical network into vast lands of the continent. The most targeted group is
the lower income group since they are sensitive to the market the
telecommunication companies have been struggling to lower their tariffs and
come up with packages which will attract more customers.
Tanzania ranking 6th position in Africa in terms
of the number of internet users with around 4.9 million users as per December 2011
internet world stats you might say yes we are doing it we are above almost 40 African
countries in terms of internet access but the questions that pop into our mind
should be what is the proportion of 4.9million compared to the total population
of Tanzania which is approximately 40 million people you will find out only 12
percent of our total population are subscribed to the internet which is the
main source of technology advancement and communication.
The challenge that comes up is that the remaining eighty
something percent remain unreached with the internet access. Internet is
becoming the basic need of the human being that why this is called the information
age. People needing access to the internet becoming inevitable but how are the
government and the ICT community of Tanzania coping up with the situation.
Having limited people who can access the internet is among
the major challenges in the advancement of the technology industry. People are
coming up with creative and massive ideas everyday but the problem is how we
can reach the audience using technology if only 12 percent of the total
population have access to the internet and sometimes is not even proper
internet access.
The dreams of e- learning and knowledge sharing through
technology are becoming almost next to impossible due to the limited access of
the internet. Thanks God the emergency of m-learning (mobile learning) which is
proposed to be practiced in some other African country such as Ghana.
It is our responsibility has individuals to come up with
ideas which will enhance the accessibility of the internet everywhere in our
country from rural areas to urban areas. The accessibility of the internet will
increase the market for our products and innovative ideas online. Consider having an application which is able
to anticipate the different seasons of the year which is very useful to farmers
but it is available online although the idea is great and impacts the community
directly but only few with internet access will be able to buy or utilize the
application and most of the population of the people who are located in cities
and towns are not farmers hence your goal will fail due to the limited access
of Internet.
We should set a goal by 2015 the number of internet users in
Tanzania should double the current number so that we can chase our neighbors Kenya.
This is possible if every one of us local ICT communities and the government in
general we will be ready to invest in technology and challenge the speed of
growth of the Industry. The
increase in number of internet users will help Tanzania government to reach
people easily and in time and deal with their problems effectively.
By Jumanne Mtambalike
By Jumanne Mtambalike