Tanzania wants to accelerate digital govt plan with single service window, database links

The Tanzanian government says it is working to incorporate AI into its digital government plans in order to make access to public services speedier and less costly.

With an AI-powered digital government architecture, the East African country also hopes to eradicate bureaucratic inertia and corruption which are common with the analogue way of conducting government business, The Citizen reports.

Officials at the 4th e-Government Annual General Meeting advocated for linkages between the databases of the digital identity authorities and other government agencies such as the police, the tax authority and the immigration service that will facilitate information flow among them.

The government is also creating a single window for access to citizen information by public institutions. Per the outlet, Tanzania’s Minister of State in the President’s Office in charge of Public Service Management and Good Governance, George Simbachawene, made the announcement at the meeting.

According to the minister, all government institutions must be part of the digital government ecosystem, which is one of the ways the country intends to speed service delivery, fight corruption and do away with queues at government offices, “something that has been raising many complaints from people across the country.”

Explaining the importance of the digital government annual general meeting, Tanzania’s digital government agency chief Benedict Ndomba said it was meant to review the country’s strides in that respect, review challenges as well as make proposals to address them.

Issues relating to safe and secure data management also took centre stage during the meeting, plus plans to develop the country’s ICT sector and put in place the Tanzania Enterprise Service Bus (GovESB) – a government data sharing and exchange platform.

Last August Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan called on the government to speed up work on the digital government and data harmonization project, in order to facilitate access to public services.

Article Topics

Africa  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  Tanzania