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Tanzanian residents can now apply for letters of residence online
What you need to know:
- The development aims at building a permanent foundation on identification services across the country
Arusha. A Tanzanian resident seeking a letter of residence from local authorities to verify their current residential address can now apply online and receive this document digitally.
This was revealed during the official opening of the exercise to review information and data on postcode addresses for the seven district councils mapped within the Arusha Region.
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Nicholas Mkapa, said Tanzania has so far listed over 12.3 million digital postal addresses.
Until now, Arusha Region has 400,000 registered postcode addresses.
Mkapa added that his ministry has reached an agreement with the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) to enable local residents to access such services without having to physically go to the local authorities’ offices.
The Director of Communication Services in the Information Ministry, Mulembwa Munaku, said the development aims at building a permanent foundation on identification services across the country.
"With the inclusion of house numbers and detailed road directions, services such as fire rescue, ambulance response, and crime prevention will be significantly expedited," said Munaku.
Acting Arusha Regional Administration Secretary, David Lyamongi, emphasised that all ward executives must apply the knowledge gained about postcode addresses to ensure full participation of their communities in the registration exercises.
Tanzania recently rolled out the digital local government service portal embedded into the National Physical Address (NaPA) platform, through which people can now access information and services without having to report to the village or ward offices.
On the other hand, residents and travellers coming to Tanzania will no longer need to rely on Google Maps to find their way in any part of the country because there is a more localised location navigation application.
The National Physical Address and Navigation App Development, which started way back in 2010, goes in sync with the advance in the country’s communication services to complement the African Agenda 2063.
Among Tanzania’s notable achievements is the development of its own version of 'Google Maps,' known as the NaPA app. This innovative application was entirely created from scratch by Tanzanian experts, predominantly young individuals.
The NaPA platform includes all terrains, with each of the remote spots of the country landscape being covered in its graphics.
It also provides additional information such as nearest schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, offices, and even village roads.
The NaPA digital location application can be downloaded from Google Play and the Apple Store free of charge.
