Dar es Salaam, Sept. 8 -- IF you walk through most towns in Tanzania today, you will see mobile towers standing tall, shining with blinking lights at night. These towers represent network coverage — the signal that allows us to make calls, send texts and connect to the internet.

On paper, the country looks impressive: More than 90 per cent of the population is covered by at least a 3G signal. But here is the challenge: While the towers are there, not everyone is using the internet in a meaningful way.

The percentage of people who go online regularly, for learning, farming, health or business, is much lower — around 30–40 per cent. This gap between coverage and usage is one of the biggest barriers to digital transformat...