What's Next [Mar 9-15, 2026]
Atom and Bits
3 weeks ago
3 minutes 47 seconds
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Here’s what happened recently and what it means for your week ahead.
1. Yas Is Staffing Up Across Engineering, Enterprise Sales and Customer Experience
Nine job postings from Yas Tanzania this week offer a window into where Tanzania’s telecom sector is heading and what skills it now rewards.
- Solutions Architect Manager — When a large organization such as a bank or government agency needs technology services and invites companies to submit proposals, this role leads Yas's response. Requires at least five years in enterprise sales.
- Transport Network Engineer — Maintains and expands the physical infrastructure that carries data across Yas’s network. Requires experience with high-capacity fibre, transmission systems, and internet routing. Vendor certifications from Cisco, Juniper, or Huawei are an advantage.
- Customer Journey and Design Specialist — Identifies where the customer experience across Yas services breaks down and designs fixes. Requires five years in telecoms, banking, or strategy consulting.
The remaining six roles are Technical Proposal Specialist, IP and MPLS Planning and Optimization Specialist, Fixed ICT and Product Specialist, Commercial Key Account Associate, Demand Planner, and Internal Auditor.
On March 3, Mixx by Yas, Axian’s financial services business in Tanzania, closed applications for six roles including:
- Merchant GTM & Trade Marketing Coordinator — Works with merchants who accept Mixx by Yas as a payment method, handling how the product is positioned and sold to them.
- Loyalty and Retention Manager — manages how the business keeps its existing customers active.
- Legal Officer — Handles the regulatory requirements that come with running a licensed financial service.
Both hiring rounds are happening at the same time because Axian Telecom has two major organizational changes to absorb at once.
The group acquired Wananchi Cable, which owns SimbaNET and Zuku, four months ago for around $63 million.
Axian now operates more infrastructure, serves more customers, and has inherited enterprise relationships that SimbaNET built across East Africa over 27 years. That is why this week’s openings are not entry-level.
If you meet the requirements, you can browse all nine Yas roles here before March 16.
2. teKsafari Acquires Nuru, Secures $40,000 to Teach Coding in Swahili
teKsafari, a Kilimanjaro-based education organization, has acquired Nuru, a Swahili programming language, and signed a Sh102 million contract to bring it to 5,000 learners across Swahili-speaking classrooms at roughly $7 per student.
Nuru was built from scratch, starting December 2022, by Tanzanian software engineer Fuad Habib, who has now joined the teKsafari team.
The language lets students write code entirely in Swahili. Instead of English commands, you write andika to print something and kama for if. And so on.
For students in countries like Tanzania, where English is often a third language, Nuru removes the translation step that sits between a student and the thinking required during coding.
“The programming language of the future is going to be the one you already speak,” teKsafari CEO Ignas Kamugisha wrote in announcing the deal.
Kamugisha, who also works as a hardware engineer (intern) at Microsoft, co-founded teKsafari in 2022 and has since reached over 5,000 young people across seven regions through workshops, a makerspace called thinkStudio, and partnerships with the Mastercard Foundation and Google.
Anyone curious can try writing Swahili code in their browser at nuruprogramming.org.
Developers who want to contribute to Nuru can find the full code at github.com/teKsafari/nuru.
Schools and organizations looking to deploy it can reach the team at ops@teksafari.org.
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2. Government Seeks Partners for Projects That Range from a Startup Incubator to a National Road Safety Network
The Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA)’s most recent investment catalogue lists over 100 projects across 15 sectors seeking joint venture partners. We found several of them built around technology infrastructure.
TIRDO is offering 1.6 hectares of its Msasani Peninsula headquarters, valued at TZS 8 billion, to develop into a centre with exhibition facilities, SME consultancy, and an incubation program for early-stage companies.
The Ministry of Works is seeking a partner to deploy automated speed cameras across five major highway corridors at an estimated $1.5 million budget, following a pilot on the Dar es Salaam to Morogoro road that reduced accidents.
A related upgrade of the national Road Accident Information System, which covers all 28 police regions on the mainland, is estimated at $800,000 and has no financing commitment yet.
The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC), on the other hand, is looking for partners on a Dar es Salaam commuter rail project that includes telecoms and signaling systems as core components.
Investors can reach TISEZA at info@tiseza.go.tz or +255 734 989470.
TECH BRIEFS
- PesaTech’s Third Cohort Opens with NMB, Airtel, iPF Softwares and Three Years of Post-Program Support
UNCDF and Anza Entrepreneurs have opened applications for Tanzania’s only fintech accelerator. The previous two cohorts backed 22 fintechs and unlocked $13 million in investment.
This year, ten post-revenue fintechs will be selected for milestone-based grants, NMB’s fintech sandboxes, and help forming strategic partnerships.
Anza is holding information sessions across the country, starting with Zanzibar this week, Atoms & Bits has confirmed. Applications close March 23.
- Kiliride Is Testing a Model Where Drivers Keep All Their Earnings
Kiliride, a ride-hailing platform currently in its pilot phase, is testing two alternatives to the standard 20 to 30 percent commission most platforms charge drivers.
One model deducts 15% per trip from a prepaid wallet. The other charges a fixed weekly or monthly subscription and lets drivers keep all their earnings.
The company has not said when it will exit the pilot or which model it will adopt upon launch in the coming months.
6. WAGA Motion Switches On a Fast Charger in Dar es Salaam
Switched on March 2, the station can charge two vehicles at once and top up a battery in under an hour, making it likely the fastest public EV charger in the country.
The company started with slower pilot chargers near Mlimani City in 2024 and appears to be moving toward a broader network.
This move comes as Tanzania runs more electric vehicles than any other country in East Africa, and the government approved a national EV policy framework in December 2024 targeting 500 charging stations by 2030. The race to build that infrastructure is just beginning.
- Muslim Savings Groups Can Now Save Digitally
AzamPesa and NBC last week announced the country’s first sharia-compliant savings account for VICOBA groups.
Islamic law prohibits receiving interest, which made every existing digital savings product unusable for observant Muslims.
Tanzania has about 50,000 savings groups with 4.4 million members holding TZS 1.5 trillion, most still managing contributions in cash and recording loans in notebooks.
- ClickPesa Launches Automatic Payment Collection
The fintech startup’s new product (Direct Debit) collects recurring payments directly from customer bank accounts on a scheduled date.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) collecting loan repayments, internet service providers (ISPs) billing subscribers, savings cooperatives (SACCOs, and insurance companies collecting premiums are among the primary targets.
Most of them currently rely on standing orders, where customers where customers instruct their bank to send a fixed amount on a set date.
Direct Debit reverses that.
The customer approves it once through mobile or internet banking. And from that point, ClickPesa initiates each collection on behalf of the business on the due date, collects whatever is available if the full amount is not there, it retries, and reports each outcome in real time.
Meanwhile, the customer cannot cancel recurring payments without the business’s involvement.
This solution is currently live with CRDB Bank accounts. To get started, you can visit merchant.clickpesa.com.
- Fiber Home Internet in Tanzania Grew 150% in Two Years
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriptions in Tanzania rose from 49,164 in early 2024 to 123,052 by December 2025, making it the fastest-growing internet segment in the country.
The market remains small relative to Tanzania’s 58.1 million total internet subscriptions, nearly all of which are mobile. Key providers in Dar es Salaam include Zuku, now under AXIAN Telecom ownership, Savanna Fibre, TTCL, and GoFiber.
Atoms & Bits is surveying residential internet users across the city on price, reliability, and satisfaction. Some results will be published. Take the survey at https://forms.gle/EUj95A2X5Biz6gpp6.
- Vodacom Is Hiring a New Head of IT
The country’s largest telco is looking for a Head of IT Strategy and Software Engineering in Dar es Salaam. The role covers digital transformation, product development, customer self-service tools, and IT budgets.
Vodacom lists AI as a required skill alongside experience in mobile networks. The position sits at senior management level and requires between five and ten years in a similar role.
Putting IT strategy, software engineering, and product development under one person (who reports to the IT Director) means Vodacom wants faster decisions between its technical and commercial teams. Right now those functions likely have separate leadership.
TAGS:InfrastructureTechnologyEast Africa


