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Zimbabwe expects all Government ministries to be on the e-government domain by the first half of next year, with four already on the platform, a Cabinet Minister said on Monday.
Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services Minister, Dr Tatenda Mavetera said this when she handed over 20 laptops donated by the Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe to her Skills and Audit Development counterpart, Professor Paul Mavima at his offices in the capital.
Dr Mavetera said her Ministry, that of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Transport and Infrastructure Development as well as National Housing and Social Amenities are already on the e-government domain, with the rest expected to join by end of next April.
“All Ministries are running on the Public Finance Management system, even the new ones (Skills and Audit Development) can’t do without the Public Finance Management system so digitalisation is really present in all Ministries,” Dr Beaulla Chirume, ICT Ministry Permanent Secretary, said.
“What, however, is lacking is the digitalisation of the services that have been provided by the specific Ministries themselves which is what the Minister is actually explaining to us in terms of the mandate of the specific Ministries in what they need to offer.
“It is an ongoing programme, I think in terms of percentage I wouldn’t want to commit, but I’m sure we are well above the 50 percent mark. We just need to tie the loose ends together so that we have systems that speak to each other, systems that are interoperable so that data is always collected.”
Accepting the computers, Prof Mavima said his Ministry expected to put together a staff complement of about 200 people, most of whom would need computers in order to deliver on the Ministry’s mandate when work begins in earnest early next year.
He said the mandate of his Ministry is to identify the skills that the country needs in order to meet its Vision 2030, Africa’s Agenda 2063, and the global sustainable goals, achieve rural industrialisation, to meet the demands of an information-based economy and the fourth industrial revolution.
Besides Government ministries, the Skills and Audit Development Ministry will also work with the private sector, national employment councils and labour to identify available skills and those that need to be developed and the analysis of this information can only successfully be executed using computers.
“We are going to have an establishment of about 200 with some in the provinces, but this is an IT intensive job,” said Prof Mavima.
“We will soon be doing an information blast so that people understand what this is all about and will start our work in early 2024 once we have all the technical people in place. We will also be reaching out to the diaspora to see what Zimbabweans skills reside there and see how we can bring them back, either virtually or physically.” – New Ziana.
Online Reporter