Assessing the Technical Reliability of the Tanzania Electronic Single Window (TANESW) in Enhancing Cargo-Clearance Efficiency at Dar es Salaam Port

This study gauges how system uptime in the Tanzania Electronic Single Window (TANESW) affects cargo-clearance efficiency at Dar es Salaam Port. A convergent mixed-methods approach combined questionnaire data from 92 frontline users with ten semi-structured interviews and two focus-group discussions. Survey analysis showed that perceived reliability is the strongest predictor of efficiency (β = 0.41, p < .001) within a model explaining 61 % of the variance; users rated uptime moderately high (M = 3.69 on a five-point scale). Qualitative coding of 82 transcript pages produced three recurrent themes “lightning-fast when live,” “month-end latency spikes,” and “trust collapses when the screen freezes” that corroborate the statistical hierarchy. Extrapolation suggests each additional percentage point of availability would lift efficiency scores by roughly 0.04 Likert units, translating into significant vessel-delay savings. The study concludes that migrating TANESW to a geographically redundant, auto-scaling cloud architecture to reach a 99.9 % service-level agreement is a strategic investment, converting technical stability into sustained logistical and economic gains for Tanzania.