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Seventy-five Tanzanian truck drivers have been sent back home from Qatar after failing to operate modern, highly automated trucks, despite being recruited for jobs in Doha’s commercial transport sector.
The drivers, trained in Tanzania on outdated manual transmission trucks, struggled to adapt to Qatar’s fleet of advanced Volvo vehicles. These trucks feature digital dashboards, GPS-guided systems, and touchscreen interfaces—technology the drivers had never encountered before.
“The level of digital integration in these vehicles overwhelmed them,” said Tanzania’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Mahmoud Thabit Kombo. “To them, it looked like aircraft cockpit controls.”
Despite having graduated from the National Institute of Transport (NIT) in Dar es Salaam and completing refresher courses, the drivers lacked the digital fluency required for Qatar’s technologically sophisticated transport environment.
In response, Minister Kombo announced plans to acquire a prototype truck from Qatar for training purposes. “We intend to modernize our training facilities to ensure our drivers are globally competitive,” he added.
Qatar had initially opened more than 800 truck-driving positions, reserving over 300 for Tanzanians. The first batch’s underperformance, however, has raised doubts about Tanzania’s readiness for a digital labour market.
Tanzania’s Ambassador to Qatar, Habibu Awesi Mohamed, along with Khalid Al Rahiya, Employment Relations Manager at Mowasalat – Karwa, had been coordinating efforts to streamline recruitment. A roadmap was in place to conduct oral and practical tests either in Tanzania or upon arrival in Doha.
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The incident has sparked national debate on the urgency of overhauling technical and vocational training. “This should serve as a wake-up call,” noted a senior education analyst. “We need to embed digital literacy and advanced vehicle operation into our curricula to remain globally relevant.”
Despite the setback, Qatari recruiters are still expected to visit Tanzania for future recruitment rounds, but the focus will now shift to ensuring that candidates meet modern technological standards.
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