Arusha — ARUSHA: THE government has assured that it will continue to strengthen cybersecurity to enable Tanzanians to safely conduct their economic and social activities online.
The Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology, Mr Jerry Silaa made the assurance in Arusha yesterday during the opening of the Connect 2 Connect conference, which brought together stakeholders from the communication sector both locally and internationally.
"Regarding cybersecurity, Tanzania is in a good position as it is one of the countries that have invested significantly in this area, with a unit dedicated to combating communication piracy within the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), which oversees cybersecurity issues and coordinates safety matters across all sectors," he said.
"The government remains steadfast in ensuring that Tanzanians can conduct their economic and social activities online safely, as we have strong cybersecurity systems in place," he added.
In fact, Tanzania has been ranked first in Eastern, Southern and Central Africa according to the newly released Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2024.
In the latest GCI rankings, Tanzania has achieved a Tier 1 status in the Role Modelling category, placing it alongside global leaders such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea.
This top tier is reserved for countries that demonstrate exemplary commitment across all five cybersecurity pillars.
The GCI, now in its 5th edition, assesses countries based on five key pillars: Legal, Technical, Organisational, Capacity Development and Cooperation.
Launched in 2015 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the index is released every four years. This latest edition evaluated the cybersecurity efforts of 194 countries and aims to help nations identify areas for improvement and build capacity in cybersecurity.
Minister Silaa said the total number of subscriptions (SIM cards and fixed lines - person to person and machine to machine) has increased from 73.4 million during the previous quarter (ending March 2024) to 76.6 million subscriptions in June 2024, an increase of 4.3 per cent.
He said that through this conference, they would discuss better ways to connect digitally--not just to access the Internet but also to ensure reliable, high-speed services that are cost-effective for users.
"We have brought stakeholders together to discuss the successes we have achieved in connecting citizens to the Internet and to explore ways to achieve a better connection than we currently have to boost economic and social activities," Minister Silaa said.
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He said the government has successfully extended Internet communication services to various regions of the country, with 3G coverage pegged at 89 per cent, 4G at 83 per cent and 5G at 15 per cent.
Also read: Tanzania tops global cybersecurity index
The minister emphasised that, in today's world, the Internet is essential to people's lives, as many activities, including agriculture and business, take place online.
Additionally, he said that for areas lacking communication services, the government is committed to installing communication towers to facilitate access to these services for citizens.
"Under the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in May 2023, we launched a strategy to construct 758 towers through the Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF) to provide services in underserved areas," he stated.
