Major ICT boost for Midlands Province

The Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, left the Midlands Province ICT-enabled following the launch of five (5) community information centres (CICs) and six (6) ICT labs in Shurugwi on 28 November 2022.

Gracing the launch were the Deputy Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Hon. Dingimuzi Phuti; the Director General of POTRAZ, Dr Gift Machengete; CEOs and Managing Directors of Postal and Telecommunications Sector players.

In his address during the launch, Dr. Jenfan Muswere, the Minister of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services said the ministry has a special obligation to make sure that all Zimbabweans, regardless of geographical location should access ICTs.

Buoyed by the desire to succeed, the Ministry is rolling out different ICT access projects throughout the country, especially in the remote and underserved corners of the country, leaving no place and no one behind.

“Indeed, our desire is for all Zimbabweans to be able to have access to the Internet and communication in general. If a student does not have Internet access, that means they will struggle to type their school papers or do online homework assignments, learn basic computer skills, or try to get help from their teachers. Communities should not be left behind, hence the establishment of the Community Information Centres we are launching today. The transformation of our economy into a digital economy requires us to embrace and capacitate all Zimbabwean communities with digital tools and skills. We hope and trust these initiatives will assist the Midlands communities and schools to that end.

“However, we also believe that Internet access on its own is not enough. To truly bridge the digital divide, there is a need for locally relevant content and tools aimed at creating a platform for crowdsourced content and educating communities on local content production by local creators,” Minister Muswere said.

The ICT Ministry was mandated by His Excellency, President Dr E.D. Mnangagwa to work on the SMART Zimbabwe 2030 Master Plan, which seeks to exploit the potential of ICTs so that Zimbabwe attains its Vision of becoming an Upper Middle-income economy by 2030. This Vision is predicated on, among others, building on the achievements of the Zimbabwe National Policy on ICTs of 2016 to 2020 which further strengthens Zimbabwe’s economic base and improves its economic environment for accelerated growth towards achieving a Digital Government, a Digital Economy and a Digital Society, by 2030.

The Smart Zimbabwe 2030 Master plan, once fully rolled out, is expected to see the country achieving the Digital Economy aspirations of the National Development Strategy One (NDS1). It will completely transform government processes, services and management, and make information access and service delivery to the general public, more efficient.

Over and above all this, the Master plan, together with the flagship projects to pilot its implementation, will steer the march towards the smart digital future that will transform the country into a regional technical hub, raise the country’s competitiveness and align the country in line with vision 2030’s digitalisation agenda. These aspirations of creating a digital economy can only be achieved if a digitally literate population is created, and there is no better place to begin than by providing access to rural communities. This is where Community Information Centres play a pivotal role.

The Minister urged the local community of Midlands and surrounding areas, to make full use of the facilities commissioned yesterday to uplift their lives and implored them to use the internet responsibly, for their good, as technology has its negative impacts.

Below. Spiked Online Media shares, the schedule of events as they happened yesterday: