Online Reporter
Features and Supplement Writer
THREE years in the making, the Digital Economy Conference (DEC) has grown into Zimbabwe’s most consequential annual forum for technology, policy and economic transformation.
Here is why it matters and what it is building.
In a world where nations are being remade by code, bandwidth and data, Zimbabwe has resolved not to be a spectator.
Each April, the Ministry of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services convenes what has quietly become the country’s most important annual policy platform on technology — the Digital Economy Conference (DEC).
It is a gathering that does not simply talk about transformation. It produces the blueprint for it.
The 2026 edition, the third in an unbroken series that began with Digital Economy Conference 2024, concluded last week across two intense days — April 21 via a national virtual session and April 24 at the Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo.
Before the outcomes are examined, it is worth pausing to understand what the conference is, where it comes from and why its institutional continuity matters enormously to the future of Zimbabwe’s digital economy.
A conference born of necessity
The Digital Economy Conference was not born in a boardroom.
It emerged from a frank ministerial recognition that Zimbabwe’s approach to digital transformation had been fragmented — good intentions scattered across line ministries, development partners and the private sector, without a shared annual moment to take stock, correct course and make binding commitments.
This recognition itself sits within a broader national trajectory.
Under the Second Republic, led by President Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe has undertaken deliberate steps to reposition information and communication technologies as a backbone of economic growth.
These include the expansion of national broadband infrastructure through fibre backbone projects, the rolling out of community information centres to bridge the rural-urban digital divide, and the licensing and operationalisation of new players in the telecommunications space to enhance competition and access.
The Government has also accelerated e-Government services; digitising key public interfaces such as civil registration, taxation and licensing, while strengthening the cybersecurity framework through the Cyber and Data Protection Act.
Complementing this has been a strong push towards innovation ecosystems, including the establishment of technology hubs, support for start-ups and the mainstreaming of digital skills development across educational institutions.
It is within this evolving policy and infrastructure landscape that the Digital Economy Conference finds both its urgency and purpose.
DEC 2024 was convened as a deliberately broad diagnostic tool, establishing the national baseline: where Zimbabwe stood on connectivity, digital skills, cybersecurity readiness, fintech adoption and e-Government.
The inaugural edition was intentionally consultative.
It set no action matrix. It, however, set the tone.
DEC 2025 raised the ambition, introducing structured panel sessions, measurable proposals and the beginning of what would become an institutional memory linking one conference year to the next.
By the time DEC 2026 was convened, the conference had matured into something more significant: a two-day machine for converting stakeholder intelligence into Government action.
“DEC 2026 demonstrated the maturity of Zimbabwe’s national digital dialogue, evidenced by the calibre of participation, the depth of sectoral analysis and the structured transition from diagnostic to solution to commitment.”
Institutional architecture
The conference is convened by the Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, in partnership with the information technology sector.
It is hosted by the ministry’s principal leadership.
The breadth of institutional ownership is itself a statement: DEC is not a ministerial press briefing dressed up as a conference.
It is a structured multi-stakeholder process with a defined methodology.
The theme for 2026, “Accelerating Zimbabwe’s Digital Economy: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Action Towards Vision 2030”, signalled a strategic sharpening.
Previous editions catalogued the challenge.
DEC 2026 declared it was time to deploy the tools.
Why Bulawayo: A statement in itself
The decision to hold the physical session in Bulawayo was not just for logistical convenience.
It was a deliberate act of geographic inclusivity in a country where devolution of national programmes is held as key to the achievement of the shared vision. Hosting the DEC on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair not only ensures rich participation but also provides the opportunity for closing the gap between citizens and policymakers.
By hosting DEC 2026 in Bulawayo, the Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services sent an unmistakable signal: Zimbabwe’s digital economy must be built for all, resonating with the national mantra — “Leaving no place and no one behind”.
The stakeholder ecosystem
What distinguishes DEC from standard Government conferences is the breadth and authenticity of its stakeholder composition.
Government ministries sit alongside telecommunications operators, fintech platforms, academic researchers, civil society organisations, youth-led digital enterprises and gender-focused advocacy groups.
International development partners and regional counterparts participate not as spectators but as contributors.
This year, the guest of honour was Ms Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s Minister of Information Communication Technology and Innovation — a figure recognised globally for her role in engineering Rwanda’s ICT-led economic miracle and a sitting member of the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees.
Her participation provided DEC 2026 with continental credibility and a living proof of concept, that a deliberate, policy-anchored digital strategy can produce measurable economic and social transformation within a decade.
Vision 2030 connection
Every proposal tabled, every issue raised and every recommendation adopted at DEC 2026 is anchored in a single national objective: Zimbabwe’s aspiration to achieve upper middle-income status by 2030.
That goal cannot be achieved on the backs of agriculture and mining alone.
It requires a productive, inclusive, technology-driven services economy that links industry to the global market.
The digital economy is not a complement to Vision 2030.
For an increasing number of policymakers and economists, it is the mechanism.
ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Annastacia Mavetera arrived at DEC 2026 carrying a new title: president of the Smart Africa Council of Ministers in Charge of ICT.
In that dual capacity, national host and continental chairperson, she positioned Zimbabwe not as a country asking for digital leadership but as one prepared to provide it.
DEC 2026 at a glance
Theme: Accelerating Zimbabwe’s digital economy: Harnessing artificial intelligence for action towards Vision 2030
Day 1 (Virtual): April 21, 2026 — 167 participants across Zimbabwe and the diaspora
Day 2 (Physical): April 24, 2026 — 371 participants, Rainbow Hotel, Bulawayo
Host ministry: Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services
Host minister: Minister Mavetera
Guest of honour: Ms Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation, Rwanda
Outputs: DEC 2026 Action Matrix, Comprehensive recommendations across five policy streams
Institutional continuity: Third consecutive annual conference (DEC 2024, DEC 2025, DEC 2026).
As you read the articles that follow in this series, one covering Day 1’s virtual session and the landmark AI unveilings, the other covering the physical conference’s high-level deliberations, outcomes and the Action Matrix — bear in mind that what happened in Bulawayo last week was not an event.
It was an institution in motion.
Zimbabwe’s digital economy moment, as the conference’s own conclusion puts it, is now. What remains is the discipline of implementation.
