Success in life is never achieved by size, neither by power nor the amount of wealth at ones disposal. It takes focus, determination, courage to see beyond limitations and the discerning mind to do the right things at the right time. These qualities in one man have brought out a country listed as one of the poorest countries in the world to become one of the leading lights of technology development in Africa.
Tanzania may well be called the jewel of Africa’s digital switchover odyssey, because not only did the country achieve record as the first African country to switch off analogue and on to digital, it went on to receive international commendation from the GSM Association for the achievement. This was long before the ITU deadline of June 17, 2015.
And behind this success story of Tanzania’s digital migration is one man that has distinguished himself as vibrant and diligent regulator in the African ICT industry. He is no other than Prof. John S. Nkoma, the Director General of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) since 2004. As Chief Executive Officer of TCRA, he is charged with the co-ordination of activities of the Authority which include the regulation of telecommunications, broadcasting, postal services; management of the radio frequency spectrum; management of electronic and other Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).
At a time when the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was only finalising plans of digital migration for Europe and Africa, TCRA under Prof. Nkoma had already begun preparations digital switch over in August 2005 by publishing its first consultation document, addressing changes to the policy, legislative and licensing framework required to prepare for DSO. That was almost a year before the Geneva Agreement of 2006 that fixed June 17 2015 deadline for all countries to switch off analogue transmission.
As a man with foresight with deep knowledge of his industry, Nkoma realised that starting the DSO process early enough would give his country the latitude to perfect everything and achieve the desired success, thus, he set the country in motion before others could even think of DSO.
TCRA began a public education roadshow in April 2011, and the country’s president launched the Digital Tanzania campaign in August 2011. The following month, StarTimes (the brand name of Star Media) held its grand launch – although its service had been available earlier in the year – and by November 2011 had acquired 130 000 subscribers. The other two multiplex operators launched only after analogue switch-off. In the first half of 2013 Agape launched in six localities, while Basic Transmissions launched in three.
Tanzania eventually switched off its analogue signal in most regions more than two years ahead of the ITU-agreed deadline of 17 June 2015.
Speaking on some of the strategies and success stories for the DSO achievements, Prof Nkoma gave his “Commutation Strategy” thus: Communication is power. One of the key success factors was to identify and categorize the audience/ profiling for effective outreach:
In year 2010 TCRA formulated a Communications Strategy (CS) and submitted it to the Government for approval. The Government approved it; the communication strategy provided for all communications outlets including print and electronic media (newspapers, tv/radio), roadshows, talkshows, meetings/seminars, jingles and songs (audio and visual) from ward to national level, tailor made for various age groups, various social spheres, government to private sector.
From the DSO success story, one thing is clear: Prof Nkoma’s experience and wide knowledge of the industry was brought to bear, hence, all his strategies were able to get government supports and backed up with needed funds. His academic and professional qualifications explicitly speak volume of the calibre of man he is.
After obtaining his BSc degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University Of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Prof. Nkoma obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Essex, UK. Prof. Nkoma has over 25 years’ experience in University teaching, Research and Development, and Senior Management. He was a member of the physics department at the University of Dar es Salaam from 1971 to 1981, where he also served as Head of Department from 1979 to 1981. Thereafter, he joined the University of Botswana, where during 1993 to 1997 he served as Dean of Faculty of Science and was promoted to full Professor of Physics in 1997. He left the University of Botswana in mid-2004 to join TCRA.
The proficient Prof. Nkoma is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), has been Senior Associate, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy, is a Member, American Physical Society (APS). For many years he has been the Representative for Africa in the Reference Group, International Programme in the Physical Sciences (IPPS), University of Uppsala, Sweden. He has conducted several consultancies in Science and Technology for developing countries. He has served as External Examiner to several Universities including: University of Dar es Salaam, National University of Lesotho, University of Malawi, University of Swaziland, University of Zimbabwe, and University of Namibia. As a research fellow, Prof. Nkoma’s fields of research interests include the study of the interaction of electromagnetic waves with materials (metals, semiconductors and insulators), and the role of science and technology such as ICTs on development. He has authored over 70 research articles in international journals.