E-Government Development in Tanzania

The digital transformation of public administration in Tanzania has seen significant progress over the last decade, after the first National e-Government Strategy was adopted in 2009 and the e-Government Agency was established in 2012. 

The Agency developed two five-year national digital plans with the aim to improve public service delivery and ICT infrastructure as well as to harmonise and integrate public services. The Tanzania e-Government Strategy (2013) focused on working out frameworks for further implementation of e-Government initiatives and priority-setting. ICT staff training and enhancing technical expertise were also among the objectives. The assessment of e-Governance status and Service Delivery Survey followed with the second e-Government Agency Strategic Plan 2016/17-2020/21 developed in 2017. 

In 2019, the e-Government Authority was established succeeding the Agency. In 2021, this institution worked out a new five-year Strategic Plan 2021\2022-2025\2026. Despite the renewal of the institutional frameworks, key objectives remain the same: prevention of corruption, enhancing and maintaining e-Government capacity, and improving e-Government regulatory frameworks. The target of implementing and operationalising the government authentication infrastructure was set in the Strategic Plans to achieve by 2026.

The digitalisation of public services in Tanzania is led by national institutions with a great share of domestic solutions. International organisations such as the World Bank contribute to the development of e-Government in Tanzania, however the role of international assistance programmes has decreased significantly. Multinational corporations, e.g. Huawei Tanzania, Raxio Group, Maxcom Africa, Vodacom Tanzania invest in the digital transformation of Tanzania.

Even though some public websites were developed and designed by e-Government Authority, a single design for platforms is yet to be implemented. Both Swahili and English translations are available on most platforms, however they do not always function properly (for example, on the Service Portal of the National Health Insurance Fund the English translation is only available on a few pages). Some platforms such as e-Mrejesho are available in Swahili only. There are also noticeable bugs on some websites. A number of platforms (such as the Taxpayer Portal) use National Identification Number (NIN) for registration, yet individual registration is required for most of the systems.

Rankings

As per the World Bank GovTech Maturity Index, Tanzania is among the continental and global GovTech leaders and ranks 2nd in Africa (after Mauritius) with a GTMI reaching 0.86. As of 2022 according to the UN E-Government Development Survey, Tanzania ranked 153 with an EGDI of 0.42 (compared to the Sub-Region average of 0.384). 

Integration of Public Services

The e-Government Authority portal along with the Government of Tanzania website are both declared to be nation-wide one-stop shop platforms for accessing public e-services. They are neither integrated nor harmonised, some services are duplicated, which complicates service accessibility. Both portals provide links to external systems or institutions’ sites. 

Source: e-Government Authority site

It is noteworthy that the e-Government Authority site offers public services of 5 types – G2G (government to government), G2C (government to citizens), G2B (government to business), G2S (government to students), and G2E (government to employees) with a total of more than 100 services available. Whilst the Government of Tanzania website categorises services by sectors (such as Agriculture, Health, etc.).

The Government Mobile Platform (mGov) is an one-stop shop platform that allows for delivering public services via SMS, USSD, and mobile applications. It offers SMS Push (messages outgoing from citizens with a request of a service) and Pull (messages outgoing from public institutions with updated information, warnings or notifications) services and USSD services available upon dialling code *152*00#.  SMS Pull services are used by Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (DAWASCO) and the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) to notify on the bill payments. One can also subscribe to the job alerts. According to the mGov poll 66% of respondents prefer mobile apps for accessing mobile services, SMS and USSD are less popular with 24% and 10% respectively. 23 mobile apps of public institutions can be found in Tanzania e-Government Apps Store.

Source: Tanzania e-Government Apps Store

Government e-Payment Gateway (GePG) enables citizens to pay for public services using mobile money, internet banking or cards. The system also has a mobile application.

Zanzibar e-Government

Apart from the nationwide e-Government Authority, in 2019 the Zanzibar e-Government Agency was established. The institution intends to facilitate access to public services for Zanzibar residents as well as to coordinate implementation of e-government initiatives and provide advisory and technological support to public institutions. There are also Zanzibar own platforms such as Zanzibar Government Portal. There is also a separate Zanzibar Mailing System. Moreover, Zanzibar has its own National Data Centre managed by the Zanzibar ICT Infrastructure Agency.

However, some services are delivered via centralised nationwide systems, and their links are available on the Zanzibar portal (like e-Immigration Portal and Visa Application System). 

Source: Zanzibar Government Portal

G2G Services

One of the peculiarities of e-Government development in Tanzania is much attention placed on G2G (government to government) services and interoperability between institutions and departments. For instance, the Government Mailing System enables communication between organisations and is announced to be utilised by almost 600 public institutions. There is also a separate Zanzibar Mailing System. Still, many institutions gather information independently, their platforms are rarely integrated.

The Government Communications Network (GovNet) is a secure network that connects government agencies and authorities and provides a platform for communication and data sharing among these entities.The initiative was supported by the World Bank. The project includes services such as Government e-Payment Gateway (GePG), Birth and Death Registration System, Telemedicine, National e-Procurement System, and e-Office.

The Government e-Office System (GeOS) allows to manage mails and files, and provides secure movement of documents between public institutions and citizens. The system is available for about 400 public institutions. 

Source: eGa

Enterprise Resources Management Suite (ERMS) aims to manage and automate an institution's internal business processes, data processing and sharing across departments and sections of the institution. The system has 18 modules such as Planning, Project Management, Biling, Budgeting, Client Management, etc. Each module provides a specialised platform. For example, the Client Management platform allows for managing and organising client data. It enables users to add, edit, and update information related to their clients. Among the G2G services there is also the aforementioned Government Mailing System, Government Real Estate Management System, and other platforms.

Source: ERMS

e-Taxes

As a part of the anti-corruption campaign the revenue collection systems were automated. In 2020, the eFiling System was introduced. The Taxpayer Portal allows for applying for Tax Identification Number (TIN), filing tax returns, paying taxes, etc. and uses National Identification Number or TIN for registration. 

In January 2023, the Tanzania Revenue Authority announced that monthly tax collection in December reached a record $1.2 billion largely thanks to ICT facilitating tax payments. The VAT electronic filing system was upgraded in 2022.

Citizens Participation and Anti-Corruption

Citizens have an option to report corruption cases through the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB, TAKUKURU) website or application. Human Resource Management systems are to be implemented by 2026 with the aim to reduce corruption.

e-Mrejesho platform enables citizens to report complaints, send suggestions or requests to different institutions including sectoral ones, as well as to track their status. Apart from the web version, there is a mobile application developed by eGA.

Source: e-Mrejesho

Identification and Biometrics

Registration for the National Identification Number (Fahamu Namba ya NIDA, NIN) started in 2013. As of 2015, 6 million citizens registered for the biometric ID and almost 3 million had already received it. New biometric passports were introduced in January 2018. A number of platforms (such as the Taxpayer Portal) use National Identification Number (NIN) for registration, yet integrated identification has not been fully implemented.

In 2017, biometric registration of irregular immigrants in the Tanga region was implemented with the support from the International Organisation for Migration.

In December 2018, the development of the Biometric attendance system commenced with the ultimate goal of verifying citizens’ accounts on the Government recruitment portal using biometrics. Once employed, their NID can be used for tracking attendance. However, the system is yet to be fully implemented. In 2021, the President announced that the government was considering introducing e-voting to attract more voters. 

Education

In 2004, the development of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) was announced. It is designed to store and process data from educational institutions such as performance information (e.g. results of national and local examinations), financial information (e.g. expenditure reports), staff personal data (including qualifications, experiences), information on research, inspection results, etc. 

The School Information System (SIS) keeps records on teachers and students performance, attendance and other information. However, it was created for teachers and non-teaching staff only, students cannot use the System and track their grades.There is no school digital pass system allowing parents to check the school passes and purchases.

Source: School Information System (User Manual)

Universities Information Management System (UIMS) is designed to manage and process data and information for all Tanzanian Universities. It monitors accredited universities, information about graduates, student enrollment, and staff.

G2S (government to students) e-services are represented but not limited to the Universities’ Learning Management Systems (OUT Learning Management System, University of Dar es Salaam Learning Management System, etc.), e-Libraries (IAA e-Library, University of Dar es Salaam Electronic Resources, Sokoine National Agricultural e-Library, etc.). However, they are not integrated, universities collect education data independently. There is also a Selform Platform which allows students to indicate their preferred colleges and schools.

Data Management and Infrastructure

In 2015, the $94 million investment in constructing a government data centre was announced. Huawei Tanzania provided advisory support to the project which was completed in 2016. The data centre is managed by Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL). However, the project met some challenges, including lack of clients. In 2017, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications directed public institutions to cancel their own data centre development initiatives and use the existing government data centre. There is also Zanzibar National Data Centre managed by the Zanzibar ICT Infrastructure Agency. Further development of the shared data centre infrastructure for public institutions is among the targets to achieve by 2026.

Other Services

Among the e-Government solutions to be mentioned are: the Tanzania Custom Integrated System, National e-Procurement System, Electronic Tax Stamps for excisable goods, and Recruitment Portal (citizens can apply for a job, but there are only about 60 available job vacancies). There are also sector-specific e-services like Mining Cadastre Portal and Madini App which allows access to information on mineral markets, licences in Tanzania.

Source: Tanzania National e-Procurement System

Author:

Olesya Kalashnik, research fellow