Tanzania has connected its people, now it must connect its economy

By Norman Kiondo

Somewhere between Kahama and Geita, a plant manager waits for a batch record to reach a system hosted thousands of kilometres away. Near Mbeya, a fuel distributor discovers that a remote depot has operated for weeks on a single mobile connection, with little visibility of its performance.

In Tanga, a sisal estate sends weighbridge tickets as photographs because its operational systems cannot communicate with its finance platform.

These are not isolated technology problems. They point to a larger question at the heart of Dira 2050: can Tanzania’s digital infrastructure connect the businesses, systems and productive activities needed to drive economic transformation?

Tanzania has made impressive progress in consumer connectivity. TCRA data for the quarter ending June 2026 show internet penetration at 89.7 percent, suppAorted by 62.8 million subscriptions.

Data traffic rose by 11.65 percent during the quarter to 1,041 petabytes, while 4G population coverage reached 94.3 percent.

These figures indicate that basic digital access is no longer the country’s main challenge.

The next phase of growth lies in connecting businesses and productive sectors. Enterprise connectivity remains relatively limited, with only 103,843 corporate fixed internet subscriptions nationwide.

A 23.7 percent broadband geographical coverage gap, limited 5G territorial reach and differences in network performance between urban and regional markets show that infrastructure supporting widespread business digitalisation is still evolving.

This creates a structural imbalance with important implications for Tanzania’s long-term ambitions. While the country has built a large consumer connectivity market, enterprise connectivity remains less developed and concentrated around major urban and coastal areas.

Dira 2050 identifies weaknesses in transport, energy and digital infrastructure as constraints on private-sector productivity, while weak connectivity and limited market linkages continue to hinder economic coordination.

Achieving the plan’s ambitions, including a trillion-dollar economy and per capita income of USD 7,000, will require productivity gains across agriculture, mining, manufacturing and logistics.

These gains must extend beyond Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Arusha to mines in Geita, factories in Mbeya, farms in Njombe, logistics hubs in Tunduma and industrial sites across the regions.

This changes the definition of digital readiness. The question is no longer simply whether a location has a signal or internet connection.

It is whether geographically dispersed operations can function with the same systems, security controls, operational visibility and reliability as headquarters while remaining economically viable and scalable.

For many businesses outside major centres, this remains difficult. Connectivity often depends on what is locally available: fibre where the national backbone reaches, microwave where fibre is absent, LTE where fixed infrastructure is limited and satellite in remote areas.

Different sites may therefore rely on separate technologies, vendors and management systems. This fragmented environment can increase complexity, reduce resilience and make consistent security and performance harder to maintain.

Internet access alone is therefore not a meaningful measure of digital maturity. What matters is whether connectivity helps organisations improve productivity, reduce downtime, strengthen competitiveness and integrate effectively with customers, suppliers and internal systems.

One technology that can help address this challenge is Software-Defined Wide Area Networking, or SD-WAN. In business terms, SD-WAN acts as an orchestration layer that allows organisations to manage multiple connectivity technologies as one integrated network.

Instead of permanently relying on one expensive connection between every site and headquarters, software can use the available network paths and determine which traffic should take which route.

This has several practical benefits. Fibre, microwave, 4G, 5G fixed wireless and satellite can be managed as part of one logical network. This is particularly relevant as Tanzania’s broadband backbone reaches 122 of 139 districts, leaving areas where connectivity options remain limited.

SD-WAN can also prioritise critical applications. Plant telemetry, enterprise resource planning and other essential business systems can receive priority over less important traffic such as software updates or video calls.

Cloud applications can be accessed directly from remote sites under central security policies, while operational technology can be separated from guest networks. Sites can also be provisioned and managed centrally, potentially reducing the time required to establish new depots and operations.

However, SD-WAN is not a substitute for basic infrastructure. It cannot create bandwidth where none exists, solve unreliable electricity or compensate for inadequate last-mile infrastructure.

It also brings operational and vendor-dependency considerations. Most importantly, technology cannot overcome human-capital gaps on its own. Digital infrastructure creates value only when organisations have the skills needed to deploy, manage and use it effectively.

The broader strategic issue therefore extends beyond any individual technology. Agriculture, mining, manufacturing and logistics are geographically dispersed by nature.

If resilient enterprise-grade connectivity remains concentrated around major urban centres, digital transformation risks becoming uneven.

Consumer services and public digital platforms may continue expanding rapidly, while industries outside major cities struggle to achieve comparable productivity gains.

Three priorities follow. First, boards should treat network architecture as a strategic operating decision, not simply a procurement issue, and consider the productivity and downtime costs of remote operations.

Second, policymakers implementing Dira 2050 should include the connectivity needs of industrial zones, mines, agricultural areas and logistics corridors alongside household coverage targets.

Third, telecommunications companies should be judged not only by the links they provide, but by how effectively those links enable businesses to operate securely, productively and competitively across Tanzania.

Tanzania has connected its people. The harder and more valuable task now is connecting the places where economic value is created.

Norman Kiondo is the Chief Business Officer at Yas Tanzania