Tanzania’s ambition to become a regional technology hub relies on more than digital infrastructure, with a study visit to Helsinki showing how universities, investors, public institutions, and entrepreneurs must collaborate to develop a digital economy, according to lessons from Finland.
Tanzania’s ambition to establish itself as a regional technology hub depends heavily on whether the country can build an ecosystem capable of turning raw concepts into thriving, competitive businesses.
Organized by the ministry and implemented under the Digital for Tanzania Twinning Project, the delegation’s trip explored how public institutions, universities, investors, and entrepreneurs can cooperate to strengthen a promising digital economy. The overarching Twinning Project brings together Finland, Estonia, and Germany to support Tanzania’s digital transformation through technical cooperation, institutional capacity-building, and policy development across cybersecurity, personal data protection, interoperability, data governance, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
Laying Digital Foundations and Acknowledging Gaps
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During a presentation in Finland, Dr Ally Simba, Head of ICT development at the ICT Commission, outlined the current state of Tanzania’s digital architecture and the capabilities that still require development. According to Dr Simba, high-speed internet coverage has reached 94 percent, while 5G coverage stands at 35 percent. The National ICT Broadband Backbone extends 15,167 kilometres, successfully connecting 122 out of 139 district headquarters on the Mainland.
These investments supply a critical foundation for digital services and AI adoption, but officials remain clear-eyed about existing hurdles. Dr Simba noted that gaps persist in specialised skills, data readiness, computing infrastructure, research and development, investment, and institutional coordination. To address these shortcomings, Tanzania is moving toward a dedicated national AI policy direction, with the National AI Strategic Framework 2026–2031 awaiting approval alongside the broader Digital Economy Strategic Framework 2024–2034.
To translate these high-level ambitions into evidence-based action, the Commission has proposed a National AI Readiness and Compute Demand Assessment Programme. This program aims to evaluate organizational readiness, workforce requirements, adoption rates, and computing needs, ultimately contributing to a national evidence base and a planned AI Observatory.
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Learning from Finland’s Bottom-Up Startup Ecosystem
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Finland’s experiences offer valuable lessons for East African technology planners, particularly regarding the limits of policy alone. With a population of roughly 5.6 million people, Finland possesses a relatively small domestic market, a constraint that forces Finnish startups to look toward international markets right from their earliest stages.
Resident Twinning Adviser Jani Ruuskanen emphasized that policy documents cannot generate digital transformation in isolation. Digital transformation does not happen through policy alone. It has to be implemented from the bottom up,
said Mr Ruuskanen.
During their fieldwork, Tanzanian officials visited Maria 01, a prominent startup campus located inside a former hospital in Helsinki. The site demonstrates how service providers, investors, and entrepreneurs can operate within a shared environment to gain direct access to critical networks and expertise. Mr Ruuskanen noted that this ecosystem acknowledges the realities of product development, observing that startups frequently need to alter their products or business models after testing them in live markets.
