Chronicle Editor
Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE drive to unlock wider digital economy opportunities is critical to achieving economic growth targets under the National Development Strategy 1 (2021-2025), which builds towards attainment of Vision 2030.
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) director general, Dr Gift Machengete, said this on Thursday while launching the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Access by Households and Use by Individuals 2020 Survey report.
The survey report was launched at a time when Government has included the digital economy as one of the 14 thematic areas in NDS1 launched by President Mnangagwa in November last year.
“The digital economy has become the buzz word not only here in Zimbabwe but across the whole world, as it is believed to be the hallmark of success for any serious nation going into the 4th Industrial Revolution,” said Dr Machengete.
“In NDS1 we have a set of core indicators that track readiness for the digital economy including digital infrastructure, technologies in use, use cases and challenges encountered with access to and use of digital services, some of which information can only be collected at household level.”
He said the regulator will continue to align its surveys to evolving policy needs and priorities. This would be achieved through facilitating surveys on emerging priorities such as e-commerce, e-government, e-education, privacy and security issues as well as child online protection and digital skills indicators in a more comprehensive way.
“Such surveys will indeed facilitate informed strategising and interaction in mapping the way forward to achieve the targets of NDS1 and the attainment of our national Vision 2030,” he said.
Dr Machengete said research and needs assessments were critical for Potraz for planning and strategising on the best interventions to mitigate the gaps in the ICT sector in order to bridge the digital divide.
“Without measurement, we would not have a clue as to how we are performing or the direction to take for meaningful interventions,” he said.
“This survey report that we are launching today is, therefore, critical in our performance in delivering our core mandate of attaining universal access to ICTs.”
Since 2009, Potraz and the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat), have been collaborating in conducting the ICT access and use by business surveys.
Other surveys include the ICT access and use by rural households’ survey in 2010, the 2014 ICT access by households and use by individuals survey.
Dr Machengete commended Zimstat for braving the Covid-19 pandemic to conduct survey field work and preparing the survey report in the midst of prolonged lockdowns, and just in time when they least expected it would be possible. — @okazunga
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