National Information and Communications Technology Policy 3.1.1 Policy Objective To strengthen strategic ICT leadership at all levels to effectively champion exploitation of ICT in all sectors of economy. 3.1.1.2 Policy Statements The Government shall:i) Ensure a high level of ICT leadership to provide vision and guidance for effective development, deployment and exploitation of ICT for socio-economic advancement in the Country. ii) Ensure availability of adequate funds equivalent to a reasonable proportional of GDP to promote ICT for full participation in the knowledge economy. 3.1.2 Issue: ICT Human Capital Development Human resources are important for sustainable ICT industry. ICT Human Capital Development as one of the pillars in the NICTP 2003 aims at expanding and increasing local skilled and competent ICT human resources in the country. A number of efforts have been taken to develop the ICT Human capital in the country including establishment of ICT colleges in Universities such as dedicated College of ICT at the University of Dar es Salaam; dedicated school of Informatics at the University of Dodoma; introduction of ICT programmes in privately owned and operated Universities and an introduction of ICT subject in primary and secondary school curriculum. As a result, a number of students’ enrolment and graduates in ICT in both public and private institutions has increased and more ICT courses are now offered as compared to the situation in 2003. Other efforts include development of appropriate scheme of service for ICT cadres in the Government. Despite the aforementioned achievements, there are still challenges in the development of ICT human capital which need to be addressed for full exploitation of benefits of the ICT sector such as non-recognition of ICT professionals, and inadequacy of ICT skilled and competent human resources base to accelerate the nation’s socio-economic development efforts in the information age. In this context, appropriate policy mechanism need to be put in place to address the aforementioned challenges. 19