Government endorses Vodacom’s health innovation initiative

The Government has said it will continue working closely with Vodacom Tanzania in coming up with innovations that support and provide the required data within the health sector.

This was said by the Director of Health, Social Welfare and Nutritional Services in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Governments, Dr. Ntuli Kapolongwe during one of the dialogues that were coordinated by Vodacom Tanzania as part of activities for the just ended Innovation Week Tanzania 2022 in Dodoma City.

Dr Kapolongwe also urged on stakeholders to use such verified statistics that are a result of innovations that have been coordinated by the government and institutions like Vodacom Tanzania.

“We have been working so well with Vodacom Tanzania and I applaud them for investing a lot in the health sector. Their innovations have helped a lot by providing necessary statistics in the health sector,” he said as he called on stakeholders to seek for this information at the Ministry of Health and TAMISEMI instead of complaining.

“Most of them do not inquire for these statistics from the relevant ministries yet it is all there and as you heard Vodacom have pledged to continue supporting more innovations, which means more statistics will be available,” he said.

He said more research on various innovations in the health sector is a complementary to government efforts hence more institutions should emulate Vodacom.

“During the past two to three years, the government has received a lot of innovations at different levels within the health sector and this has helped the government in planning and making informed decisions,” he said.

On his part, the Vodacom Tanzania Director of Digital Services, Nguvu Kamando said the mobile company realized the importance of innovations hence started the Vodacom Digital acceleration which aimed at ensuring various local innovators reach their goals within a short period.

He said Vodacom in collaboration with the government, has supported more than 15 local institutions to grow and four out of them excelled internationally.

“The Vodacom Digital Acceleration season two is open and called on youths to enroll and apply for support from Vodacom Tanzania,” said Kamando.

The Innovation Week was organised by the Ministry of Education Science and Technology in collaboration with the Commission for Science and Technology and United Nations Development Program through the Funguo Program and the main sponsor was Vodacom Tanzania.