Scope of the Personal Data Protection Act

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We are a telecommunication company based in Tanzania with operations in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. We are aware that the government has adopted a law on data protection. We want to know if this law applies to our operations in Zanzibar. Kindly guide us.
TP, Dar es Salaam

The Personal Data Protection Act, [Chapter 44 of 2022] (the Act) applies to both Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. Section 2 of the Act states that it shall apply to Mainland Tanzania as well as Tanzania Zanzibar save that in Tanzania Zanzibar this Act shall not apply to non-union matters. The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania of 1977 (the Constitution), provides a guide to what constitutes non-union matters. According to Article 4 of the Constitution, there shall be Union Matters as listed in the First Schedule and non-union matters shall be matters which are not so listed.

The First schedule contains a list of 22 union matters which are: Foreign Affairs; Defence and Security; Police; Emergency Powers; Citizenship; Immigration; External borrowing and trade; Service in the Government of the United Republic; Income tax payable by individuals and by corporations, customs duty and excise duty on goods manufactured in Tanzania collected by the Customs Department; Harbours, matters relating to air transport, posts and telecommunications; All matters concerning coinage and currency for the purposes of legal tender (including notes), banks (including savings banks) and all banking business; foreign exchange and exchange control; Industrial licensing and statistics; Higher education; Mineral oil resources, including crude oil other categories of oil or products and natural gas; The National Examinations Council of Tanzania and all matters connected with the functions of that Council; Civil aviation; Research; Meteorology; Statistics; the Court of Appeal of the United Republic; Registration of political parties and other matters related to political parties.

Based on the above, you are required to take due regard on data protection requirements provided in the Act in so far as the union matters are concerned. We believe the Data Protection Commission will provide guidelines on the application of the Act in Zanzibar.