By Milliam Murigi
Tanzania has been ranked in the World Bank’s highest government technology (GovTech) maturity tier in the 2025 GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI), reinforcing the country’s standing among the leading adopters of whole-of-government digital systems.
The classification places Tanzania among a small group of countries that have moved beyond fragmented digital pilots to establish nationwide platforms for public service delivery, data sharing across ministries, and structured channels for citizen engagement.
The 2025 update is built from self-reported survey responses from 158 economies, supplemented by publicly available data for 39 non-participating economies. According to the Bank, more than 1,000 government officials contributed evidence through the global online survey.
“The result reflects a long evidence-collection process rather than a short review. The World Bank conducted this study for about a year, collecting evidence and various information on the use of ICT in government across different countries,” says Eng. Benedict Ndomba, Director General of the e-Government Authority (e-GA).
What the index measures is technical, but the implications are political and economic. The GTMI assesses performance using 48 key indicators across four pillars: core government systems, online public service delivery, digital citizen engagement, and GovTech enablers, which include strategy, institutions, laws and regulations, digital skills, and innovation policies.
Each country’s GTMI score is calculated as the simple average of the normalized scores across these four components. Grouping is determined by normalised GTMI scores, with Group A comprising countries scoring between 0.75 and 1.0 or more, while Groups B, C, and D fall below this threshold.
In Tanzania’s case, the World Bank’s description highlights particular strength in core systems and interoperability—often the decisive layer for reducing duplication, tightening administrative controls, and improving traceability across government.
Core systems cited include public workforce management platforms such as the Human Capital Information Management System (HCIMS) and recruitment platforms like the Ajira Portal. Alongside an interoperability push designed to connect public institutions.
That interoperability layer is anchored by the Government Enterprise Service Bus (GovESB), described as a backbone that enables government systems to exchange data securely and efficiently, with the practical goal of reducing duplication, speeding up service delivery and strengthening accountability.
On service delivery, Tanzania’s account references national platforms including the Government e-Payment Gateway (GePG), the National e-Procurement System (NeST), and local government systems such as TAUSI. These platforms align with the GTMI’s emphasis on whether online service delivery exists as a national capability, rather than as isolated digital projects scattered across institutions.
Digital citizen engagement, however, remains the most sensitive pillar. Tanzania identifies e-Mrejesho as its primary feedback channel, enabling citizens to submit complaints, suggestions, advice and compliments, and to receive responses. The World Bank’s own diagnosis explains why this area attracts scrutiny.
In its GTMI 2025 key findings, the Bank notes that “CivicTech lags behind other dimensions,” warning that “monitoring the use and uptake is an issue in most economies.” In other words, platforms may exist, but many governments still struggle to demonstrate how extensively citizens use them or whether feedback meaningfully changes outcomes.
The fourth pillar—GovTech enablers—focuses on the policy and institutional environment underpinning digital transformation. The GTMI indicators explicitly assess whether a country has a whole-of-government strategy and the legal and institutional frameworks to make digital reforms coherent and sustainable. Tanzania’s narrative credits progress here to government policies, laws, regulations, standards and e-Government guidelines that steer ICT investment under a unified national direction rather than leaving agencies to digitise independently.
Eng. Ndomba urges public institutions to keep implementing ICT projects in line with national laws, standards and guidelines, strengthen citizen engagement systems, and connect institutional platforms through GovESB.
