Analysis of Tanzania’s Legal Framework for Digital Notarisation: A Comparative Study with Nigeria.

Mashaka, Alex (2025) Analysis of Tanzania’s Legal Framework for Digital Notarisation: A Comparative Study with Nigeria. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The growing digitisation of legal services necessitates the modernisation of some traditional services like notarisation, with the aim of facilitating these services. Tanzania legal framework still relies on traditional notarisation where notaries and signers are required to meet physically for identification and signing process. However, the advent of science and technology has facilitated all these processes through digital notarisation. Hence, this study aimed at analysing Tanzania’s legal framework for digital notarisation comparing it with Nigeria’s regulatory approach. Whereby, specific objectives of this study are to analyse Tanzania and Nigeria legal and institutional framework which covers notarisation process and analyse legal impediments which draw back digital notarisation process in Tanzania focussing on Nigeria as a comparative case study. Objectives of this study suggested the use of doctrinal and comparative study in order to analyse the laws of Tanzania and Nigeria. These methodologies assisted at pointing out areas which need improvements in Tanzania to accommodate digital notarisation. This study finds out that Tanzania hinders digital notarisation by requiring signers to appear physically before the notary public, also it has been found out that digital notarisation cannot be done without clear rules and regulations. It also finds out that digital notarisation established in Nigeria has accommodated all essential pre-requisites for performing traditional notarisation and make it more compelling, safe and secure to adopt digital notarisation in Tanzania.Therefore, this study provides legal recommendations on amending the law to cover for the requirement of registering capable notaries to perform digital notarisation, to incorporate provisions which define authorities of Registrar of the High Court on digital notarisation, to specify requirements of the platform intended for digital notarisation, legal recognition and admissibility of digitally notarised documents, define standards for digital identification and clear potential misinterpretation of electronic notarisation process and to establish a handbook for performing notarisation process in Tanzania

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