January Makamba

The government has completed identification and enumeration of the country’s settlement addresses and postcodes.

Some 5000 houses in Dodoma and another 7500 in Arusha have been marked as pilot areas.

Deputy Minister for Communication, Sciences and Technology January Makamba said the postcode system will use street names, roads, and house and settlement plot numbers to identify resident addresses, business location and other similar economic activities.

It will also ease the execution of government development plans as well as revenue collection.

Makamba made the remark in the House during a session of the on going parliamentary meeting. He was responding to a basic question posed by Mhonga Ruhwanya (Special Seat, Chadema) who demanded the government to provide a timeframe within which they forecast the completion of the project.

The postcode project was set to be implemented within the five year development strategic plans of 2011/2012 -2015/2016 but the deputy minister warned that this was dependant on the availability of funds.’

Prince Charles of Wales and his wife Camilla inaugurated the first residential postcode and special stamps to mark commemoration of Tanzania’s 50 years of independence during the 2011 independence celebrations. The first code unveiled was 11707 Karimjee Hall 2 Sokoine Drive, Dar es Salaam.

Minister for Land, Housing and Settlement development Prof Anna Tibaijuka spoke on behalf of the government saying it has embarked on implementing the global master plans for city and town planning, a committee to which she is ambassador.

Prof Tibaijuka disclosed that Tanzania will participate in the world convention expected to take place in Qatar, September of this year where the city and town planning will be addressed.

She urged all district, municipal and town councils to set up their master plans in which she specified that street names must strictly be adopt from, first and foremost, the names of pioneers of Tanganyika National Union Party (TANU) the ruling party that saw the Nation attain independence. It was led by the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere

She warned that plans will not be approved if they do not meet the said criteria. Then she advised the local government to also use common names including rivers, lakes and mountains and ‘national hero’ names to identify the streets.