Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

The Digital Economy Satellite Account (DESA) is a national statistical initiative implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other key stakeholders. The initiative establishes a dedicated framework for measuring the size, structure and contribution of the digital economy to the economy of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The digital economy refers to all economic activities that are enabled, facilitated or transformed by digital technologies, encompassing digital transactions, digital products and digital industries. A satellite account extends the System of National Accounts (SNA) to make these activities visible, including indicators not captured in conventional accounts such as free digital services, data assets and digital platform activity.

Measurement follows the OECD Handbook on Compiling Digital Supply and Use Tables (2023) and the Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade (IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, WTO, 2023), through the Digital Supply and Use Tables (DSUT) framework, a structured approach for identifying and quantifying digital economic activity across production and consumption.

Consistent with the OECD framework, the initiative adopts a multi-dimensional approach that recognises three levels of digitalisation:

• Core Digital Economy: the fundamental digital industries providing the infrastructure, goods and services that enable digitalisation, such as telecommunications, ICT infrastructure, internet services, data centres, cloud computing, software development, cybersecurity, and digital content and media.
• Narrow Digital Economy: activities that depend directly on digital technologies, identified through digitally ordered and/or digitally delivered transactions, such as e-commerce platforms, digital financial services and mobile money, e-booking, digital streaming, e-education and ride-hailing services.
• Broad Digital Economy: all activities in which digital technologies serve as enabling inputs even where the final output is not digital, such as digitally enabled manufacturing, precision agriculture, GPS-based transport and logistics, automated utilities, and digital applications in healthcare and other services.

Within this framework, establishments are classified into seven digital industry categories, including the digitally enabling industry, digital intermediation platforms (DIPs), data- and advertising-driven platforms, digitally operating financial service providers, e-tailers, platform-dependent producers, and other producers operating only digitally.

The main objective is to assess the feasibility of compiling a Digital Economy Satellite Account by testing the concepts, methodologies, data sources, classifications and estimation approaches required for its implementation. Specific objectives include:

• To test and refine survey instruments for collecting data on digital economy activities.
• To assess the availability, quality and suitability of data sources required for measuring the digital economy.
• To evaluate the feasibility of identifying and classifying digital economy industries and activities within the DESA framework.
• To assess the effectiveness of data collection procedures, digital tools and quality assurance mechanisms.
• To strengthen the understanding and capacity of key stakeholders involved in DESA implementation.
• To provide reliable evidence for policy formulation, planning and investment in Tanzania's digital economy.

As a first step, a pilot baseline survey was conducted from June to July 2025 in four regions representing the country's main concentrations of digital economic activity, namely Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Dodoma and Mwanza. A stratified sample of 390 establishments was drawn across the seven digital industry categories, and data were collected electronically through the e-Dodoso system covering revenue, imports, intermediate consumption, capital formation, employment, digital trade, mobile money, cloud computing and digital intermediation services for the reference years 2023–2025.

The pilot demonstrated that compiling Tanzania's experimental Digital Supply and Use Table and Digital Economy Satellite Account from establishment-level data is feasible. Establishments could be identified, reached and classified across all seven digital industry categories. At the same time, the pilot showed that most businesses do not maintain digital revenue as a separate item in their accounting records, and that technical concepts, questionnaire length and data availability require refinement ahead of the full-scale national survey.

Key lessons and recommendations include strengthening stakeholder engagement before fieldwork, improving the survey frame, simplifying and modularising the questionnaire by industry, integrating administrative data from institutions such as NBS, TRA, TCRA, BoT, LATRA and BRELA, reinforcing confidentiality assurances, and moving towards regular annual data collection.

The initiative is coordinated by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and implemented jointly with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the e-Government Authority (eGA), and other institutions contributing administrative data and technical expertise, including the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA) and the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA).