BY FELIX ANDREW
18th November 2013.
This was said over the weekend in Dar es Salaam by the Minister for Communication Science and Technology Prof Makame Mbarawa, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Commission for Science and Technology (Costech) under its autonomous entity Dar Teknohama business Incubator (DTBi) and US based Microsoft Corporation.
He said for the past five years the government has managed to improve communication through construction of National fiber optic cable.
The construction of the fibre optic cable has lowered down price of communication services in our country and increased the mobile access among Tanzania.
According to him, the communication charges have decreased by 15 percent and mobile penetration increased by 62 percent from 5 percent ten years ago.
“We want to make sure that the internet charges are lowered and so that more people in town and rural areas can access the services,”he said.
He commended the Microsoft innovation promotion activities in Tanzania for enabling young men and Tanzania from University of Dodoma get connected with various software ecosystem.
“The government will continue to support creativity and innovation and committed to maintain initiatives that promote young innovators to attain their entrepreneurship dreams,”he added.
Among the roles which Microsoft will play include giving DTBi the opportunity to ask for volunteers using the company’s Volunteers 4 Afrika program to train startup developers and the incubator staff.
For his part the Microsoft General Manager for East and Southern Africa, Eric Odipo said the cooperation would enable entrepreneurs to incubate their ideas and develop them to successful enterprises that solve daily challenges facing the communities.
Through the 4 Afrika Initiative we are deeply committed to helping accelerate African innovation and we hope these efforts will help us reach more people who are looking to turn their ideas into a reality that can empower their community, country and Africa at large.
However, the government plans to lower down internet charges might not work since most local operators have increased price.
Most internet cafés in Dar es Salaam have hiked the price from 700/- to 1500/- per hour while others are charging between 1000/- and 2000/- per hour.
Investigation done by this paper in some internet cafes in city centre, Tabata and Mbagala areas show that the price changes might bar many people from accessing the service.
Speaking to this paper some of the internet café users said a price hike will deny them the services since they cannot afford the increase.
“People like students or low income earners cannot afford to get the services in those cafes since it has doubled, “said Stuwart Kimambo.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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