In December 2021, the President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu, inaugurated a fiber optic cable manufacturing factory in Mkuranga district. The factory has a production capacity of 24,000 km of cables per year.
The Tanzanian government is expected to soon begin exporting fiber optic cables to neighboring countries in East and Central Africa. This is the surplus of local production from the Raddy Fiber Manufacturing Limited factory, inaugurated in December 2021.
The information was revealed earlier this week by Kundo Andrea Mathew, Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technologies.
“ Thanks to the Mkuranga factory, Tanzania is now assured of producing its own optical fibers, instead of having to import the cables and fortunately, the factory’s capacity exceeds the country’s needs, meaning we will begin soon to be exported as well ,” Mr. Mathew said.
The export of fiber optic cables is expected to enable Tanzania to generate additional revenue and strengthen its position in the ICT sector regionally. The country already shares its national fiber optic backbone with neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda.