Author: Padili Mikomangwa

Education in Tanzania has been gaining crucial technological changes over the past decades. The government of Tanzania has acknowledged the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in stimulating effective learning in the modern era, via its frameworks—communicated in the Education and Training Policy of 1995, and the national ICT policy of 2016 that both embody education technology in their own manner.

In this context, Tanzania’s innovation landscape is getting better as more young people take the helm to create solutions. In this case—MyElimu and Mtabe apps, which are customized education technology (platforms) offering seamless learning materials to secondary students across Tanzania via mobile phones are gaining traction.

The communication landscape in Tanzania is growing, and numbers show this growth could turn to be a gold mine for innovative solutions such as MyElimu.

According to information from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), internet penetration moved up from 40 per cent in …

Modern technology could be the most pristine breakthrough the human race has ever achieved, as more noble solutions come to light each day proving that—decent forms of labour can be attained if the digital economy wages its fair share of war into the sector, and Tanzania is the exemplary figure in this labour-related case.

Huduma Smart is not an ordinary startup.  It is a young, female-led enterprise that trains domestic workers and provides a job market for them via a tailored website, where employers can recruit workers of their choice per qualifications they desired and acceptability of a worker. More importantly, the startup provides health insurance and contracts to workers, among other necessities, to make their jobs respectable, a global missing recipe in the labour section.

The domestic labour landscape

It has been a custom for most average families and most of the middle-income households to require services from housemaids, …

Modern technology is the new normal; it is the currency for development in the 21st-century landscape, and for Tanzania, this means developing and launching solutions that decipher community problems including getting access to your local professional and proficient electrician, plumber, hairdresser or even IT expert.

In this case, Fundi Popote—a tailored web-based platform simplifies life by giving clients across Tanzania the liberty to book appointments with various sorts of highly-qualified fixers instantly to attend to their electrical, housing, plumbing or even computer-related problems.

Fundi Popote reveals how potential and digital-hungry Tanzania is, hence—the platform innovator, who is a young female ICT-enthusiast, who displays her talents well and shows how the nation of 55 million stands to benefit from community digital solutions.

Getting digital

Information and communications have been growing in Tanzania, as the number of people going online via their mobile phones hit 83 per cent out of 23 million …

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a new shift in South Africa, as the nation of more than 58 million anticipates to ease down its lockdown with phased reopening after rolling in the strictest movement restriction in the region.

According to information from the Financial Times, the South African government is discussing a five-level alert system, facilitating the current president Cyril Ramaphosa administration to reopen the country with low risk of contracting the virus.

Currently, the situation in South Africa has taken another shift, as Bloomberg News reported according to the health ministry, South Africa has 5,350 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, 354 more than yesterday, while the number of deaths recorded was 103.

Also, the ministry revealed that 11,630 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, adding up the number of tests to 197,127.

However, the South African agricultural exports are slated to resume operations under the new …

The coronavirus (COVDI-19) pandemic has taken a new shift in Tanzania, as new 196 cases confirmed by the Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa earlier today, the information he revealed pertaining the confirmed cases, include also figures announced by the health ministry of the semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, Zanzibar.

READ:COVID-19 in Tanzania:  Cases rise to 254; death toll hits 10

Further, the number of the deceased rose to 16 as six more people succumbed to the deadly and Zanzibar has confirmed 22 cases, according to the Prime Minister.

On April 24 the health minister Ummy Mwalimu announced the number of patients recovered from virus stood at 37, and through the past 6 days, the number of recovered patients rose to 167, whereas 36 are from Zanzibar and 83 are from mainland Tanzania.

The number of the confirmed cases have risen by nearly 69 per cent since the last time the …

Last week we saw negative oil prices hurt energy markets enormously, and we have the global pandemic—coronavirus (COVID-19) to blame for that, as nearly the entire globe is on lockdown, that sucks the life out of energy-consuming spheres.

Reports indicate mixed feelings as Bloomberg noted that, oil prices could go down again, as storage shortage becomes another nagging factor to the problem, and yet—we have seen people paying to get rid of their stock.

“The last trade of the May WTI futures was on April 21, and on April 20, as financial traders with long positions scrambled to get out of the contract, the price fell to negative $37.63 per barrel. Then on April 21, it was fine again, and the contract finished at $10.01. Even on April 20th, most trades in the May futures happened at positive prices. But toward the end of the day, panic—or something—set in, …

The world recorded another day in history —April 20, as the day oil prices globally took a negative dive, dropping below zero for the first time. International players in the hydrocarbon game have not shaken, as traders and nations pursued storage space and determining ways to drive demand scarcity.

According to reports from Bloomberg News, the oil price rise was manifested by both, pandemic fears and the price war between Saudi Arabia, Russia and the US, which affected the energy markets and traders.

As the pandemic escalates, the umbrellas of lockdowns have annihilated significant demand for oil, and other economic gains associated. Hence—the price war broke and intensified, as Bloomberg report said “  Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s biggest oil producers, escalated the price war. A pact that had restrained production collapsed and both countries opened their taps to the fullest, releasing record volumes of crude into the …

The second-largest economy in the continent—South Africa, is racing to beat the coronavirus global pandemic, as on Tuesday the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a $ 25.3 billion rescue package to cushion the most industrialized nation in the region from the consequences of the pandemic, according to information from Reuters.

As the nation swims in its second recession in two years, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused the nation’s economic activities to stop due to mandatory lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus.

South Africa, which has over 3,400 confirmed cases and 58 deaths, will experience a rather bitter toll on her economy as experts forecasted that in the first three-month, growth is expected to contract by 1.5 per cent.

The southern Africa nation has been serious about the pandemic, as it rolled in one of the region’s toughest lockdowns banning anyone but essential workers from leaving home except …

The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) battle in Tanzania stands to get French government’s funding, as the East African nation awaits to receive part of the $1.3 billion (1.2 euros) provided by the G20 member for Africans to wipe off the pandemic.

Tanzania which is currently battling with more than 250 confirmed cases of the virus, will receive an amount that has not yet been established, according to information from The Citizen.

The French government—which is also one of Tanzania’s development partner, has already initiated discussions with the health ministry to fish out key areas to allocate the support, France ambassador to Tanzania Frederic Clavarier told The Citizen.

In that context, earlier this month French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his government would provide 1.2 ($1.3 billion )Euros for Africa to fight the virus.

“Up to this moment, we do not know how much Tanzania is going to get but after discussions …

Kenya’s Safaricom M-Pesa —one of Africa’s and East Africa’s largest mobile money service, could be affected by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), as the service provider anticipates its revenue to be hit to almost $51.64 million in the three months from mid-march after it adjusted prices because of the COVID-19 crisis, according to information from Reuters

According to Reuters, the lost revenue which is almost 7.3 per cent of the mobile money service provider annual revenue, will be caused by the removal of all charges on small peer-to-peer transfers to facilitate cashless payments to help to contain the coronavirus pandemic, which has already taken a toll in other crucial sectors of the East African economy.

As one among the region’s and global leader in the industry, the South African and Britain owned company is not worried by the forecast, as the company’s CEO Peter Ndegwa told Reuters, that they anticipate getting …