TTCL needs new strategies to conquer market: Minister

DAILY NEWS Reporter

THE state-owned Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL) needs to set up business strategies that will help to boost its market share in the competitive telecom industry, the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Prof Makame Mbarawa said.

Prof Makame Mbarawa said that the government was doing all it can to make the company reclaim its lost glory but there must be new strategies to conquer the market and establish itself as force to reckon with.

“You need to change your marketing strategies which are still very poor,” said the minister after he inaugurated the new TTCL board in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

“The business in the telecommunication sector is changing rapidly from voice to data calling for new market strategies in order to maintain positive growth trend.”

According to the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) quarterly communications statistics report for June-April, TTCL has only 410,000 voice telecom subscribers representing about one per cent of more than 40 million total subscriptions in the country.

Prof Mbarawa said statistics show that voice calls in private operators is declining and replaced by data, which is becoming the heart of the business in the telecommunication industry.

According to the minister, more research is needed in the customer services in order to penetrate the stiff competitive market. He told the new board that started working since February when it was appointed to work hard to make the state run firm compete with the private compa nies that are well established in the market.

He said the government is always ready and has continued to put conducive environment for the company to thrive in doing profitable telecommunication businesses and contribute to economic growth.

On his part, the new board chairman Mr Omary Nundu pledged to work hard to increase the market share from only 0.85 per cent currently. “We need to increase the customer base to 1 million from nearly 400,000 currently at the end of this fiscal year and to 5 million customers by the year 2020,” he said.

On his part, the TTCL Chief Executive Officer Mr Waziri Kindamba said the company is expected to pay dividend to the government at the end of the financial year which is an indication of the good start of the new board.