DAR TEKNOHAMA (ICT) BUSINESS INCUBATOR AND TANZICT LAUNCHED

On Monday, October 31st, 2011 the Minister of Communication, Science and Technology, Hon. Professor Makame Mbarawa will officially launch the Dar Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBi) and the TANZICT Project, with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) as hosts of the launch event. 

Present at the launch will be the Minister of Industry & Trade, Hon. Dr. Cyril Chami, the Under-secretary of State, Development Cooperation and Development Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Ms. Anne Sipiläinen, Her Excellency, Ambassador Sinikka Antila of Finland, Members of Parliament and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Officials from Finland and their local embassy staff, the Acting World Bank Resident Representative and Country Director in Tanzania, Madame Mercy Tembon, the infoDev Program Manager at the World Bank, Ms. Valarie D’Costa, officials from infoDev in Washington D.C., USA, and the local World Bank office, visitors from South africa, and other senior members from our private sector, like Vodacom, and the public sector. 

The two new initiatives, both of which are hosted in COSTECH premises, aim to have national impacts in capacity building and entrepreneurship growth. Both these two programmes are in line with the Government’s Vision 2025 to transform Tanzania into a knowledgeable society and spur entrepreneurs to become high growth entities having a positive impact on the economy.

The Dar Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBi)

COSTECH, together with partners from the Tanzanian private and academic sectors, and infoDev, has developed the Dar Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBi) as a business driven but a "Not-for-Profit" entity. The key founding partners have been infoDev World Bank, Vodacom Tanzania Ltd and the host COSTECH.

 The goal is to support local ICT (Information and Communications Technology) companies with high growth potential and youth with creative ideas and innovation grow. 

DTBi as an autonomous and private sector driven entity, assists early stage ICT companies by lowering the cost of business and increasing the chances of business survival. This is achieved by providing support services to: access shared resources and building infrastructure; link its members to finance and markets; guidance and business management; targeted mentoring and coaching; and networking for technical trends and opportunities to access markets.

 The Incubator serves as a hub for technology start-ups and aims to actively identify and provide for the value-added services required to support DTBi clients' success.

TANZICT and the Innovation Space

TANZICT is a bilateral collaboration project (also known as the Information Society and ICT Sector Development Project) between the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology of Tanzania (MCST) and Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The project’s overall objective is a strengthened Tanzanian information society with enhanced capacities to contribute to the achievement of the Government’s socio-economic development goals. The project is organized in three components:

Support the revision of the national ICT policy and start of the implementation.

Strengthen the Institutional capacity of MCST.

Build a Tanzanian Innovation Program.

As part of the TANZICT Innovation Program is the new Innovation Space in COSTECH, which is being launched. The Space aims to create a physical meeting space for the entrepreneur and innovation community.