Assessing the economic benefits and challenges of Tanzania’s National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB)

The vision of the Tanzanian national ICT policy is for “Tanzania to become a hub of ICT infrastructure and ICT solutions that enhance sustainable socio-economic development and accelerate poverty reduction both nationally and globally”. To achieve this, Tanzanian National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) is being constructed using optical fibre technology that will connect all its regions and districts, giving them access to the 10,000 km-length national and regional broadband infrastructure as well as to the undersea fibre cables landing on its shores. Innovations in broadband backbone coupled with optical fiber technology have lowered the costs of providing ICT services to virtually any location, for example from an inner-city neighborhood to a rural village or to remote areas in other places of the world. In this study, quantitative and qualitative research have been applied to analyze data obtained from interviews, questionnaires and publications in order to assess the economic benefits and challenges of NICTBB since it became operational. Despite the economic benefits of NICTBB, the study found that there is still a role for the Tanzanian government to provide last mile connectivity solutions for rural areas to enable people to access the internet via the NICTBB, as well as to educate them on how to exploit and use broadband for economic development. Since constructing the NICTBB is only the first step toward realizing the potential benefits from broadband access, government should now ensure that it is accessible and affordable to rural area people so that majority of Tanzanians can be effective in utilizing the backbone in their daily activities, thereby enhancing economic development.