ICT drive to transform rural economies speeded up

Efforts are underway to ensure a digital economy and knowledge society in rural areas is attained to facilitate economic development and transformation in line with Vision 2030 of an upper middle income economy.

This was said by Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere on Monday while launching the Nyachuru Containerised Village Information Centre in Mashonaland Central province.

“Access to ICTs and effective participation in the digital economy remains critical in improving the quality of life for all the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

“It is therefore our wish as Government that all citizens of Zimbabwe have access to broadband connectivity including those in rural areas and low income communities.

“We are making every effort to ensure the ubiquitous availability of ICT throughout the country in order to enable those in the remote rural areas to participate in the digital economy and to increase their overall economic wellbeing, competitiveness, digital inclusion, poverty reduction and improved health and education.”

Minister Muswere said Government will continue to provide and create an enabling environment for the growth of the telecommunications sector.

He added that ICTs play an important role in facilitating the attainment of the aspirations of the National Development Strategy (NSD1) and Vision 2030.

“Indeed the digital economy is stated as one of the 14 national priorities underpinning this strategy of the period 2021 to 2025 as we thrive to become an upper middle income society by 2030,” said Minister Muswere.

Community information centres provide opportunities for people to be creative and try things out to envision possible futures whether it is in agriculture, mining, health or commerce.

“This indeed provides an opportunity for the innovative and creative minds in our communities to push boundaries and come up with home grown solutions in health, or prototypes in industry of agriculture, among many other possibilities.”

Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) director general, Dr Gift Machengete, said access to ICTs was a basic human right.

“At Potraz, we believe that access to affordable, quality information communication technologies (ICTs) is a basic right of every citizen in as much as access to clean water is a basic right.

“In this regard, through the Universal Services Fund Potraz has embarked on a number of projects in this Province that are aimed at ensuring Universal Access to ICTs.”

Dr Machengete said Potraz has erected two shared base station towers in the Chidodo and Muswewenhede areas for the benefit of communities.

The launch of the Nyachuru CVIC means Mashonaland Central now boasts of 15 Community Information Centres courtesy of Potraz, four of which are containerised while 11 were set up at Post Offices.

The other containerised units are at Karanda Mission Hospital, Madziwa Business Centre and St Alberts Mission.

In terms of other projects, Potraz has provided connectivity to 15 schools from the province, through the Universal Services Fund, under the Schools Connectivity Program.

A further 106 schools are earmarked to benefit. Additionally, Potraz has distributed 720 laptops to eight schools in Mashonaland Central Province under the Connect a School – Connect a Community Project.

An additional 868 laptops were also distributed to 69 schools from the province under the ongoing E-Learning project.

However, some schools are not using the computers because they are un able to pay for internet bandwidth, and Potraz will move to pay for bandwidth for 400 schools from May 1 to 31 December 2021.-herald.cl.zw