National Information and Communications Technology Policy CHAPTER THREE POLICY ISSUES AND STATEMENTS 3.1 Strategic ICT Leadership and Human Capital Development 3.1.1 Issue: Strategic ICT Leadership Leadership is critical to economic and institutional transformation, including ICT-enabled transformation. Whereas the NICTP 2003 observed that in 2003 Tanzania‘s ICT environment lacked focused ownership and visionary leadership, the current situation shows that things have much changed and ICT now is focused. This argument is supported by Government’s efforts in the last decade to putting more emphasis on establishing an appropriate institutional framework for sector development with a great success. Implementation of policy statements under this focus area has been successful to a great extent. Some of the notable successes include establishment of TCRA in 2003 to regulate the sector, establishment of the e-Government Agency (eGA) to promote the use of ICT in public services and establishment of UCSAF to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural communities. Other successes include Government’s decision in June 2012 to establish the ICT Commission, which is the National ICT think-tank that will be responsible for Research and Development in ICT to accelerate the ICT industry. These efforts have contributed to supportive business environment which has resulted in sector growth in terms of fixed and mobile phone subscription from 2.7m in 2004 to 32m in 2014, increased contribution to GDP from 1.5% in 2004 to 2.1% in 2014 and successful switchover to terrestrial digital from analogue television broadcasting which has expanded avenues for business development. The new policy focus is anchored on three levels of leadership. These are: political leadership to champion ICT transformation process at national and local government level; senior administrative leadership including Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and managerial officials to spearhead policy implementation at institutional level and technical leadership. Despite notable achievements, reluctance to change of mind set at various levels of leadership with regards to the adoption of ICT’s in development plans poses a challenge. There is also ineffective leadership to champion the integration of ICT and to accelerate the nation’s socio-economic development efforts in the information age. 18