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Government has allocated more than $2 million towards establishing 70 community information centres (CICs) in the different districts countrywide which will be operational before the end of the year. Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services Minister Cde Supa Mandiwanzira said the centres would ensure rural communities countrywide also have access to the internet.
Speaking after officially opening one of the centres in the Ingwizi area in Mangwe District yesterday, Cde Mandiwanzira said 12 community information centres were now operational.
“My Ministry has embarked on a programme to establish community information centres and the target is to establish one in every district. We will be opening a similar centre in Mangwe within the next two months.
“These centres will help in addressing ICT challenges faced by rural people. We want to set up the best ICT infrastructure in all our rural areas,” he said. Minister Mandiwanzira said the establishment of the centres was being funded by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz).
He said the information centres would assist school pupils and communities. He said a lot of families in rural districts were impoverished as they could not access information on markets and prices for their farm produce.
He said his Ministry had also set up a $2 million Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovation fund to promote research and development of ICT programmes and software. Minister Mandiwanzira said the fund will benefit skilled youths that were being churned out by colleges and universities.
“My Ministry is cognisant of the fact that there is a lot of talent among youths. These youths can develop software but they don’t have the means. By next week we will flight adverts on different media platforms on how the fund can be accessed and the requirements. This comes after our ICT policy was approved by government last week which also allows us to bring ICTs to developing centres,” he said.
He said the software that will be produced under the fund will be sold to network providers and other service providers. Minister Mandiwanzira said network providers had agreed to direct some of their revenue towards the fund. He said the target was to allocate $4 million to the fund every year.
Cde Mandiwanzira said government was not happy that some communities were relying on foreign networks. He said more than 50 000 of people in Matabeleland region were relying on network services from Botswana and South Africa.
“My Ministry is working flat out to ensure that communities can access all mobile networks and local radio and television channels. We are losing a lot of money to neighbouring countries when locals are using their networks.
“I’m actually amazed that we have a number of network companies in the country yet so many people are using foreign networks,” he said. He tasked all network providers within the country to extend their services to all parts of the country.
Speaking during the same event, Home Affairs Deputy Minister, Cde Obedingwa Mguni who is also the National House of Assembly Member for Mangwe Constituency said the information centre was in line with the Mangwe Rural Institute of Technology Centre which was going to be established in the district.
The college which is a subsidiary of Midlands State University is set to open next month. He said the college needs 60 computers. — @DubeMatutu
Online Reporter