Telcos are essential for Tanzania’s economic development

The aspiration of becoming a middle-income economy can be a challenging one.
A recent report by the World Bank which can be accessed from here shows that over the last decade Tanzania has had a stable and high annual GDP growth rate of approximately eight per cent, with unemployment sitting at just at 1.9 percent.
The report highlighted that the country’s economic success and its spillover effect on the labour market has in part been driven by the private sector companies within critical sectors, including IT, construction and telecoms.
It cited that part of the reason these sectors have been successful at providing employment opportunities is the fact that the sectors’ needs expand across a number of areas.
A part of the report illustrated Tanzania’s telecom sector. It pointed out how employment opportunities available within this sector go far beyond what someone might initially think mentioning examples of mobile money merchants, sales agents, distributors and customer service representatives.
The report also presented how the sector requires a whole range of experts, including service technicians and data analysts which are employment areas beyond the immediate staff we each interact with to get our SMS and data bundles.
The 2019 report on Digital Transformation in Tanzania by GSMA Group which can be accessed from here echoed the above report from the World Bank Group. One household name as an example from this report is Tigo Tanzania which the report highlights to have employed about 115,000 people either directly or indirectly.
Partly, these two reports call for a continued support of such telcos in their efforts to drive forward Tanzania’s economy.