Accelerating digital adoption in Tanzania: Technology providers and business alignment is key
Author: Emanuel Mwinuka, Chief Information Officer, Absa Bank Tanzania Limited
We are currently living in a digital era that has become inevitable as almost everything around us is in one way or another digitalized hence creating more efficiency and saving on time and resources.
Most if not all businesses have had to transform to the digital world in order to up the game and move with the current times.
The need to concerted effort
In such circumstances, there is no doubt that technology providers in Tanzania ought to have total alignment with business as part of concerted and deliberate efforts to ensure the building of systemic stability and trust in the society at large on leveraging the use of digital platforms.
Digital transformation is a process that requires adoption of best practices before getting into full digitalization
Tanzania walking in the right direction
Tanzania is taking strides into that direction as the government strives to invest into different digital platforms among other including the various digital payment systems and creation of the national database and digitalization within the transport sector.
In addition, initiatives such as the National ID Database development, widespread usage of Government Payments (GePG), mobile payments, and total banking suites on mobile or internet medium ranks Tanzania as among countries in Africa coming up to fast pace with digitalization.
All these digitalization initiatives are easily being achieved as they are a relief to consumers and other stakeholders in terms of saving costs and time. Almost all key services can be obtained online through cell phones.
Among ways to enhance this further can be through ensuring there is reliable internet throughout and that mobile phone companies offer cost effective data that can assist consumers to access internet easily.
Monitoring, evaluation is key
There is however, dire need to have a strong monitoring system in place that works 24/7to mostly capture user experience as they engage or use the platforms hence having advance information and reacting to a challenge before impact is recorded. The use of artificial intelligence to pick up trends and use it to project the future is also key.
For more efficiency and better result, there is need to invest in resilience of platforms in the form of regular testing and evaluation of backup platforms, automating some of the activities in attaining resilience as well as up-keeping the environment via necessary patching, upgrades and similar measures to ensure availability of reliable platforms as digitalization continues to be the most critical and key investment area in most organizations.
One thing to keep in mind is that digital channels are no longer an alternative as they are now being mainstreamed hence there is need to ensure stability and trust on the
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