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TANZANIA / WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ON AFRICA ADVANCER
STORY: TANZANIA / WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ON AFRICA ADVANCER
TRT: 2:12
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: APRIL 2010, ROME, ITALY / FILE
FILE – NOVEMBER 2009, DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA
1. Various shots, city scenes
2. Various shots, mobile company billboards
3. Various shots, opening of the fiber optic underwater cable
FILE – JULY 2009, DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President, Tanzania:
“Let me once again thank you for giving me the honour of switching on Seacom’s under sea fiber-optic cable communications network. Further I wish to reiterate that my government will remain committed to support and encourage the development of ICT industries and operations in Tanzania.”
5. Various shots, billboards advertising internet services
FILE – NOVEMBER 2009, DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA
6. Various shots, city scenes
7. Various shots, rice fields and farmers
APRIL 2010, ROME, ITALY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
“You need to support their access to market information. That is where telecommunication has a major role to play in Africa. You can imagine what you can do with a cell-phone and access to market information and the ability to either delay or to take your produce to markets. To link up with other farmers in the community. The role of telecommunications in the transformation of the agricultural sector to an agribusiness sector is one that should not be underestimated.”
FILE – NOVEMBER 2009, BABATI, TANZANIA
9. Various shots, communication towers
10. Various shots, market
As Tanzania gears up to host the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa, the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development reports that the country's recent technological developments in communications could revolutionize the lives of Tanzanians.
The growth in mobile phone use as a powerful economic indicator will be one of the key issues influential business leaders, government officials and members of the civil society gathering at the Forum will discuss.
In Africa, mobile use soared by 550 percent in the last five years according to a report by the United Nations (UN) Conference on Trade and Development (IFAD) published in October 2009.
Research shows that mobile subscriptions rose from 54 million to almost 350 million between 2003 and 2008.
It’s the quickest growth in the world.
In July 2009, Tanzania installed underwater cables bringing high speed fiber optic broadband capacity to East Africa and linking the region to the outside world.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President, Tanzania:
“Let me once again thank you for giving me the honour of switching on Seacom’s under sea fiber-optic cable communications network. Further I wish to reiterate that my government will remain committed to support and encourage the development of ICT industries and operations in Tanzania.”
After the President of Tanzania launched the fiber-optic cable almost overnight, the cost of downloading one mega-bite of information of broadband internet fell from 90 to 30 Tanzanian shillings.
The international link is expected to radically reduce the costs of doing business in Africa, thereby boosting the prospects for industry and commerce.
In urban centers such as in Dar-es-Salaam, the potential for economic growth is almost palpable.
But what does the promise of a bright, new, high-tech future mean to the poorest members of Tanzanian society?
Those farmers, many of whom living on less than a dollar and twenty five cents a day, and who up make more than 70 percent of the population?
One participant at the World Economic Forum will be IFAD’s President Kanayo Nwanze.
SOUNDBITE (English) Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
“You need to support their access to market information. That is where telecommunication has a major role to play in Africa. You can imagine what you can do with a cell-phone and access to market information and the ability to either delay or to take your produce to markets. To link up with other farmers in the community. The role of telecommunications in the transformation of the agricultural sector to an agribusiness sector is one that should not be underestimated.”
IFAD in partnership with the Tanzanian Government has helped to develop Mobilinfo, a software platform which is the hub of an information network. From its base in Dar-es-Salaam, it reaches past Lake Victoria into Uganda and across the Massai Mara into Kenya, linking up poor farmers into a marketing network that aims to help increase incomes, reduce waste and reform markets across the region.
The network is made up of hundreds of entrepreneurs who collect information from markets and exchange it on the Mobilinfo platform. That information might be about the price of a commodity at a certain market or about a buyer looking for a specific product.
Now due to the availability of mobile phones and the internet, for the first time by exchanging this market intelligence, farmers and traders can know who is looking for what, where, when and for how much. Using this new technology, these poor farmers can now be more competitive and sell their produce for higher prices.
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