My colleague has already delivered his rebuttal to Mr Eddie Cross’s claim that the bond note is the strongest currency in Southern Africa. In this article I am going to deliver my own rejoinder to the assertion by Mr Cross that because the bond note is stronger than all the other currencies in this region all is well in Zimbabwe.

What he said

The underlying economy actually is fine, it’s growing, exports are growing and the fundamentals are strong and this was reflected by the fact that by Christmas the rate to the RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) Dollar had come down to 2,83.Now at 2,83 everybody has got to understand that the bond note is the strongest currency in the SADC region, because it is a currency, and this indicates the underlying strength of the Zimbabwe economy despite the problems.

Why I think his argument holds no water

When people talk about the economy they are referring to Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic environment. Here we will be talking of the economy in its entirety not to just specific sectors. The health of the economy is gauged by a number of indicators which have to be taken as a whole. These factors include of course the strength of a currency but we also have to look at things like:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) i.e. the value of goods made in a certain country in a given year
• Inflation i.e. changes in prices of goods
• Employment
• Spending levels/Amount of disposable income available
• Monetary policy
• Fiscal policy

Not long after taking the reins, Mr Mthuli Ncube claimed that Zimbabwe had been under reporting its GDP and proceeded to “rebase” it to a $25 billion. Considering how we are importing everything I think the dear Minister and his masters simply cooked the books. If you do not believe me walk into a supermarket right now and see how many  of the goods on the shelves were made in Zimbabwe. Even the matches and needles are imported.

The strength of a currency means nothing when its value is volatile. The volatility of the bond note is more than enough proof that our economy is sick and in need of urgent attention which it is not getting from our government which continues to ignore the prevailing currency crisis.

In fact my as my esteemed colleague has so eloquently argued the trouble with the bond note is that it is technically not even a currency at all! So how can it even deemed the strongest currency when it fails to tick the currency boxes not least of the fact is that you cannot trade it outside Zimbabwe.

Back to the volatility issue, because of lack of trust in our government the bond note has been on a free fall. Every time the government announces a policy change the bond note takes a tumble. Case in point after the fuel price hikes the rate has now risen to $4 RTGS. The government speaks and the bond falls. Its so volatile it makes the Rand(the second most volatile currency in 2018) and the Turkish lira look rock solid.

Then there is the issue of inflation. Officially inflation is in the 40% region. This rate is calculated using official prices of goods i.e the prices at which things like bread are supposed to be sold at not the actually prices that some of us have to pay in order to get bread. Officially bread costs $1.40 in reality you will have to pay $2.50 almost twice and much.

Most economies agree that once inflation reaches and passes 50% it should now be deemed hyperinflation. The government has thus been again massaging the books to make sure that we don’t get into the hyperinflation territory. Unofficially there is hyperinflation in Zimbabwe.

Given all this, it is quite ridiculous for Mr Cross to understate the problems we face and speculate that all will be well soon. Whatever light he is seeing at the end of the tunnel is the proverbial train coming to steam roll us all and send us back to the hell that was 2008.

The post There Is More To An Economy Than The Value Of Bond Notes appeared first on Techzim.

The Founder of Econet Global, Strive Masiyiwa, along with his wife Tsitsi Masiyiwa have pledged $100 million to a fund rural entrepreneurs. Masiyiwa, who also happens to be one of the richest Africans in the world had this to say about the fund:

My wife and I have decided to set up a special fund of $100m over 5 years for ReImagine Rural in Zimbabwe.
We have also challenged our friends in the philanthropy community to join us to expand it across Africa.
The fund which is our own personal money will be disbursed as loans through Steward Bank (a member of the Econet group).
The money will support projects from rural entrepreneurs or those entrepreneurs willing to focus on rural areas.

SB will set up a special team [Masiyiwa Rural Challenge Fund].
I want to use this initiative to challenge global donors to support mass entrepreneurship in Africa by putting my own money into what I believe. My wife is currently on a major drive to get this concept adopted by other philanthropists, so we can push into other African countries.

This initiative does not reduce our commitment to other areas of our philanthropy efforts including education and the $60m sanitation and water initiative in Harare.
We thank the Lord who empowers us!

Details of how the fund will work were posted on his Facebook page and we know the following:

• 25% must be set aside for an area of Zimbabwe called Matabeleland;
•  Women must get minimum 50%;
• Young people must be the focus;
• Traditional businesses like stores and grinding mills will be excluded. We want to see a new generation of businesses, to fulfil my dream of #ReImagineRural.
• Min: $1000, Max $10,000.
• No collateral;
• Maximum interest 5%;
• Repayments will go into revolving fund;
• All entrepreneurs must undergo training before loans;
• No political lobbying for support

The post Strive Masiyiwa To Launch $100m Rural Entrepreneurship Fund appeared first on Techzim.

Even though ride-hailing is more convenient than cabs, there’s a lot that could go wrong when it comes to safety. I recently came across a story about a girl who was stabbed by a Taxify driver after she said she would pay upon arrival as she didn’t have cash on her. The father who was sharing this story went on to say that he couldn’t get hold of Taxify in order to get to the bottom of the issue. Now whether this alleged story is true or not is one thing, but I will say this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of such creepy stories about Taxify.

Just a quick Twitter search of “Taxify” will get you some interesting results concerning the ride-hailing service. Here are some of the more interesting things I came across:

My Taxify just broke down. I asked him to open the car bonnet and this is what I see… pic.twitter.com/PUQhlBpjzf

— Disun Vera-cruz (@disunvc) February 3, 2019

He said, if I will cancel the trip, I should pay the estimated fare. I told him I won’t pay for no work. This led to a heated argument between the driver and I. #TaxifyProblems @Taxify_Gh

— van twinkle (@triciatwinkle) February 4, 2019

Guys DELETE your @taxify_za Apps. If you want to live and be safe. I will never, as a woman, use Taxify again. I cant believe how much danger we out ourselves through using a service with drivers that have not even been verified. #TaxifyandDie #taxify #CrimeWatch

— Anele Ngwenya (@yung_zulu) December 13, 2018

I wouldn’t use it…

Now, these are all allegations and until proven otherwise some will shout, “what if it’s all a campaign to tarnish Taxify?” That could be the case but the final straw for me was when one of my friends in South Africa told me about an incident where a Taxify driver pulled a gun on her.

She told me that whilst coming from work late, the driver started acting aggressively and pulled out a gun on her and warned her that if anything suspicious happened during the trip he would use the gun. Now, this might be interesting if you’re watching a movie but if in real life this is certainly not the price you want to pay for the ride-hailing experience. I’ve never used Taxify myself and because of all the stories I’ve heard of the service, whenever I’m outside Zim I stick to Uber and traditional taxi companies.

Have you used Taxify before? What has been your experience with the ride-hailing service? That could help paint a clearer picture regarding the service

The post Is Taxify The Least Safe Ride-Hailing Service In South Africa? appeared first on Techzim.

Though WhatsApp gets a lot of slack for the way they deal with fake news, a new report seems to suggest the guys are not just scratching their heads and mulling at a solution. It turns out WhatsApp removes a number of accounts that spread false news and abusive content on the worlds most popular messaging service.

WhatsApp held a press conference in India, and in this press conference, they informed the press that each month they remove two million accounts from the service. 20% of those two million accounts are actually removed during registration. WhatsApp did not disclose how they flag accounts as potential abusers during registration, which is a bit strange. Maybe they use their database to see numbers that have been reported and removed before but we will never know.

How do they do it?

WhatsApp is using a mix of human intervention along with machine learning to delete these accounts.

• 25% of the banned accounts are removed by humans
• 75% removed by algorithms that seek out malicious activity

WhatsApp went on to specify some of the type of content that will get users banned:

Some may want to distribute click-bait links designed to capture personal information, while others want to promote an idea. Regardless of the intent, automated and bulk messaging violates our terms of service, and one of our priorities is to prevent and stop this kind of abuse.

Considering that WhatsApp had 1.5 billion users the last time the numbers were announced, this means every month they remove about 0.133% of accounts every month. Doesn’t sound as significant as it did when you heard 2 million right? In fact, that number is so small that if we were to multiply it by 12, they remove around 1.6%/year. Maybe this is why they felt reporting the number of accounts is better than stating any percentages.

The post WhatsApp Bans 2 Million Accounts Every Month For Fake Or Abusive Content appeared first on Techzim.

It’s Thursday once again so you already know what’s up! No not Throwback Thursday, I’m talking about the Techzim Gen Z Career Guidance Masterclass. If you’re not already part of these groups then you can join the career guidance masterclass groups and as always the Masterclass will be taking place at 1900hrs CAT.

Tonight’s guest

For tonight our guest is none other than David Coltart. Mr Coltart is a  jack of many trades with experience as a Lawyer, Human Rights Activists and Politician all rolled in one. He is an experienced Senior Partner with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. Here are some of the achievements of Mr Coltart’s long and storied career;

• He is the Former Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture;

• Mr Coltart is a senior partner at Webb, Low & Barry, Inc. Ben Baron & Partners and has been at the law firm for 36 years;

• In 2016, David Coltart authored the book The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe;

• David Coltart was among the contributors to the human rights report; Breaking the Silence.

If you’re interested in being part of this evening’s masterclass you can join the group by following this link.    or this link

There aren’t too many slots left so be quick!

The post Techzim Generation Z Career Guidance Masterclass: Our Guest For Tonight, David Coltart appeared first on Techzim.

So yeah, good thing that Ecocash introduced the FCA wallet for USD transactions. Of course this is only a good idea to the extent that they have good USD liquidity to make the movement of money from one end of the country to the next possible. Let’s assume they do.

The thing I would fix about the user experience is this:

The current set up

Right now if you want to use the USD wallet you go through the menu to Wallet Services then Multiple currencies and after that select to use the USD wallet. I am supposing here you already know how to use the FCA wallet and you already subscribed to it.

The problem though is that once you have selected to transact with the FCA wallet it becomes your default until you change back to the RTGS wallet. This is a problem because one can forget that the active wallet is the USD wallet and send USD’s to some person whilst intending to send Zimbollar. This almost happened with a colleague!

A mistake on sending money can be reversed more or less easily but if you were paying for a good or service you will be tossed to and fro to get the reversal you need especially if you are dealing with an uncooperative merchant.

What I would change

The simple change I would make would be to allow users to subscribe for the FCA wallet and once they do to introduce a single extra step on performing transactions for the user to choose which wallet they want to use. This way, users don’t need to shuffle between one wallet and the other and risk sending the wrong currency to the wrong person. They decide on which currency just before sending or paying for stuff.

Of course my way is not necessarily the right or best way. It’s possible the majority of folks prefer the current set up. I am too forgetful perhaps and I am fearful of sending the little greenbacks I wish kunhonga (to come across) to the wrong person.

The post How The Ecocash USD Wallet Experience Can Be Improved appeared first on Techzim.

One of the perks of having a ZOL internet connection is that you get “free” WiFi access on ZOL’s numerous ZOLspots. Connecting using your Fibroniks on the Go credentials will see you using data from home or work account instead of you having to buy a voucher. If you have unlimited account it essentially means you will also have unlimited access to data on ZOLspots.

It is a nice perk to have especially for a person like me who spends a fair amount of time on the go. The trouble with Fibroniks on the go though is that, unless you have an iOS device connecting to a ZOLspot is not as easy as the instructions provided by ZOL themselves seem to suggest. To be fair it’s not very hard but it took more than a few attempts  for me to be able to connect.

How to create a Zolspot login

1. Visit https://myzol.co.zw/ and login using your ZOL ID
2. Click/Tap on Fibroniks on the go
3. Click/Tap on Add User
4. Here you have two options either enter the login id and password manually or allow ZOL to generate these for you
5. I suggest you let ZOL generate the password, so just enter your name and email address
6. The login credentials will be sent to your chosen email address

I suggest you do this as soon as possible even if you have no intention of using ZOLspots. You never know when this will become handy. Creating a Fibroniks account can be a bit of a pain when you do it on the Zolspot itself.

If you want to do this on the ZOLspot itself:

1. First connect to the Zolspot unsecured SSID i.e the one without the lock icon on its WiFi name
2. Once you  are connected you will be prompted to login ,select Fibroniks on the go, the page will automatically scroll down, click on the Go to MyZol button
3. Login and create your account as outlined above

Connecting using Fibroniks on the go

Now if you were connected via the unsecured Zolspot SSID you will need to disconnect and connect to ZOLSecure.

1. Tap on the ZOLSpot connection and select the forget network connection
2. Tap on the ZOLSecure network SSID you will be prompted to enter your username and password
3. Enter these and you should be connected

Now in theory that is all you have to do. For me the reality was quite different, however. When I selected ZOLSecure I discovered that there were an number of authentication methods including PWD and PEAP. ZOL never mention which of these you are supposed to use. Given the fact that there were more input fields than I knew what to do with on the default PEAP I selected PWD but my username and password kept getting rejected.

In fact I could not connect at all no matter what I did or method I selected. Some of the authentication methods were downright baffling. Stumped I logged into my Fibroniks account and noticed my device and its MAC address had appeared and underneath it there was some red text saying user disabled. After a little bit of fiddling I was able to change this to enabled.

Anyway here are the steps you need to follow in order to actually connect:

1. Select PEAP and ignore everything else just enter your username@zolspot.co.zw
2. Enter your ZOLSpot password
3. You might or might not be able to connect it does not matter much at this point
4. Login into your https://myzol.co.zw/ account
5. Select Fibroniks on the go
6. Click on the edit button (pencil icon) next to the user you are trying to connect as
7. Scroll to the bottom you should see your device listed there
8. Click on the edit button next to the device name
9. Choose a name for device, the name has to be acceptable otherwise a red triangle will appear next to the name if you attempt to navigate away from the textbox. This triangle is rather inconspicuous and is easy to miss. You will not be able to save anything unless you choose an acceptable name
10. Check the allow access to this account button
11. Select Save
12. If you were doing this on a ZOLspot disconnect from the unsecured connection as outlined above
13. Tap on the ZOLSecure WiFi name and select PEAP
14. Ignore the other fields and enter your username@zolspot.co.zw and password in the appropriate fields

You should now be able to connect to ZOLSecure. Please note that if you have a capped account data you will be munching on that data. You have been warned. Otherwise expect the same speeds you will get on your home connection although that will also depend on how many people are using the hotspot.

The post How To Use Fibroniks On The Go On Zolspots appeared first on Techzim.

As I said last week, the combining of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger will allow Facebook to unilaterally harvest and merge users data so that it will be a seamless experience to migrate from one platform to another. Well, those plans have been dealt a huge blow.

Today, German antitrust authorities ruled against Facebook combining user data from different platforms, saying it was exploiting its position as a dominant social media company in violation of European regulations. (Download the full statement here)

The Federal Cartel Office, or Bundeskartellamt, said Facebook was guilty of “exploitative practices” by forcing users to allow it to collect data from other Facebook-owned services like WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as third-party websites through the “Like” or “Share” features, and assign it to a user’s Facebook account.

Dominant companies may not use exploitative practices to the detriment of the opposite side of the market, i.e. in this case the consumers who use Facebook. This applies above all if the exploitative practice also impedes competitors that are not able to amass such a treasure trove of data…..Facebook-owned services like WhatsApp and Instagram can continue to collect data…..However, assigning the data to Facebook user accounts will only be possible subject to the users’ voluntary consent. Where consent is not given, the data must remain with the respective service and cannot be processed in combination with Facebook data. In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts

Facebook had a response

The ruling will not go into effect immediately and Facebook has one month to appeal. Anyway, Facebook has already given us a glimpse of its full case against this ruling. The tech giant said that Germany’s Cartel Office underestimates the competition Facebook has in Germany from YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter and others in calling it a “dominant company. In its response Facebook said:

We support the GDPR and take our obligations seriously. Yet the Bundeskartellamt’s decision misapplies German competition law to set different rules that apply to only one company……We face fierce competition in Germany, yet the Bundeskartellamt finds it irrelevant that our apps compete directly with YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter and others.

What this means for Facebook

Facebook has been given 12 months to comply with the order. However, if the ruling is upheld, Facebook will be required to allow users to specifically approve data collected from other Facebook-owned sources and third-party websites. It means each and every user on all of its platforms will have to individually give consent for Facebook to collect and merge their data. Imagine how long it will take for every user to give consent?

Besides, there are those people who now skeptical about how Facebook uses its data so obviously they will not allow Facebook to play with their data. In a way, Facebook would never realize its plans to combine its platforms. But let’s wait and see.

The post Germany Says ‘NO’ To Facebook’s Plans Of Combining WhatsApp, Instagram And Messenger Without User Consent appeared first on Techzim.

So apart from being addictive Twitter can, on occasion be a very good source of information. Such an incident occurred when I was on Twitter this morning. I came across a tweet that claimed that ZOL was charging customers who were no longer subscribed discounts to return to the provider.

Ko @ZOLconnect you’ve called the customers that left after the HUGE price hike and offered them a 25% discount. Why don’t you just do the right thing and offer all of us the 25% percent discount PERMANENTLY? Reward your customers’ loyalty!! You may find some will return! @Techzim

— Ba’Zuva (@NdiniIsheWacho) February 6, 2019

Now the tweet was a bit devoid of context so I had to dig around a bit and find out, what exactly happened.

I got in touch with the former customer (who refused to be identified) and he explained that after ZOL’s most recent price hike last year, he migrated to TelOne Fibre and did not subscribe for Fibroniks again. To his surprise, he received a call from ZOL two days ago and they were asking why he unsubscribed and he explained that the pricing had become too aggressive and the way in which the pricing was announced was not to his taste. The ZOL rep he was speaking to then asked him if he was interested in resubscribing and as an incentive, they offered him a 20% discount. He’s not entirely sure if the discount was 20 or 25% but he declined because it was still too expensive and to make matters worse that discount would only apply for the first month.

What did ZOL have to say about this?

We got in touch with ZOL to understand what their stance was and if they were indeed offering these discounts and they are yet to respond to our request for comment

This is not anything new…

Though we haven’t heard wind of this in the Internet Service Provider space this is not an entirely new thing for businesses to do and we know for a fact that this is something that DStv does and has been doing for a very long time. I remember my parent’s getting one such offer from DStv where they asked us to pay for a month and get the next month free. They ended up getting three months because of some error but anyway that’s beside the point.

Businesses need to keep money coming in and every subscriber lost = a constant supply of revenue. This is especially more critical in businesses that rely on a subscription-based business model, as ZOL does.

The post Is ZOL Offering A Secret Discount To Customers Who Left After Their Price Hikes? appeared first on Techzim.

Half of my childhood was set in the late 1990s ,years which, most people agree, were some of Zimbabwe’s best years. Like me, a lot of people like to listen to Ezomgido tracks from the good old days when we had our own reputable currency and the entire region looked up to us when it came to matters of food security. YouTube is a natural enclave for such music.

Stealing from the dead

The trouble though is that most of the music from this era was made by musicians who have since passed on. We have people like Biggie Tembo and his Bhundu boys, Marshall Munhumumwe and the four brothers, Leonard Dembo and James Chimombe. Some of the musicians are very much alive but have limited tech skills.

Taking advantage of this a group of YouTube pirates have risen to the fore. They upload tracks recorded from the Ezomugido shows onto their VCRs to the platform, some make fan videos or tack a string of sometimes relevant images and combine these with ripped audio.

Based on views these pirates are raking in quite handsome sums by robbing the dead, ignorant rights holders and their estates. YouTube thwarted some of the smaller pirates by disabling monetisation on smaller channels with less views and subscribers when they changed their monetisation conditions but that has left the larger pirate channels to thrive.

What artists can do about it?

YouTube has a tool called Content ID. A right holder can use the tool to protect content to which they have rights. Rights holders can upload their copyrighted works. YouTube then scans its vast library to see if there is any offending content that has already been uploaded.

When offending videos are found rights holders have options. They can either choose to monetise the videos upload by the pirates which means all revenue which was supposed to go the pirate now goes to the content owner. They can also apply to have the videos removed.

Content ID continuously monitors the YoutTube library and informs the rights holder when new offending work is found.To learn more about Conent ID please click on the link.

The post YouTube Piracy Is Rife In Zimbabwe, Here Is What Musicians Can Do About It appeared first on Techzim.

Econet has once again come up with a new service again (on top of the Twitter service), that is perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea. Rather, the new service is for us soccer lovers as it sends “post-match” news updates about the English Premier League in our SMS inbox.

For some weird reason, Econet has not made any announcement of this service. As it happens, I only got to know about this service when I requested my airtime balance on the USSD. That’s when I saw this:

What’s it about?

Since Econet didn’t publicize about this service, it stands to reason that it didn’t disclose what we really get from this service. Yes, its soccer news updates but I just want to know if its a service that’s worth my hard-earned money and not some quick-cash-grab scheme.  But hey, don’t worry, I’m going to be the guinea pig for you and test out this service.

How can you access the service

You just dial *717*10#

How much do you pay?

There are three prices depending on how long you want to get the soccer news updates. There is:

• The Daily package that cost $5cents
• The Weekly package that cost $25cents
• The monthly package that cost $75cents
• And there is the 3-day free trial which I’m going to subscribe to, to see how the service really works

The post Soccer Lovers! Econet Has A New Service For You appeared first on Techzim.

A few days ago we received a tip and verified for ourselves that the ZIMSEC online results portal was no longer accessible. At the time we assumed that this was due to some technical reasons, government websites in Zimbabwe have a notorious habit of prolonged downtime.

It appears this is not one of those cases, ZIMSEC have since put up an announcement on their website:

Please note that the window to view results online has closed. Please collect results from your respective centers.

Says a pop that in during the past week was telling students to click on it to be taken to the results portal.

Going back to the dark ages

This is rather disappointing and retrogressive behaviour on the part of ZIMSEC. In fact the more you let that notice sink in the more stupid it sounds. Yes, I said stupid because the notice makes no sense at all. At no point in time did ZIMSEC mention a time window during which students could view their results online.

A lot of people who wrote ZIMSEC  in the distant past were really hoping this would be a permanent thing and more results would be digitised and made available even those of who wrote many years ago. The portal in fact would be very useful to employers who could ask potential employees to login into the portal so they could verify the authenticity of certificate copies.

Then there is the fact that the portal had some kinks to be ironed out. There are unsubstantiated, but plausible reports, that staff at some schools laboriously created accounts for all their students in order to prevent students from seeing their results via their portal. A lot of schools have been in the past accused of extorting students, demanding all manner of payments if they want to see their results.

Another fact to consider is that a lot of students were having difficulties using the portal in the fact place. As is typical of the government there was no human help involved. Instead a board with terse instructions on how to create an account and view results was written on the site and students left to fend for themselves.

Closing the portal gets a solid thumbs down from me.

The post Breaking News: ZIMSEC Shuts Down The Online Results Portal appeared first on Techzim.

Former Minister of ICT, Supa Mandiwanzira, was back in court today as his case regarding abuse of office continued after two postponements dating back to last year. Mandiwanzira is being charged with abuse of office on two counts;

1. That he allegedly engaged Megawatt company, to do consultancy work for NetOne without going to tender
2. That he allegedly appointed his Personal Assistant, a government employee at deputy director level, to the Potraz Board in violation of corporate governance principles and a Cabinet circular

False starts

The trial was deferred on two occasions, first on the 10th of December and then on the 18th. Initially, Mandiwanzira avoided trial as he notified the courts that he had only received his papers hours before the trial. On the 18th, Mandiwanzira managed to further delay the court case by requesting proof that he has shares in Nightangle, a company which he is accused of owning and which was involved in fleecing NetOne for consultation services through Megawatt. He went on to request State Procurement Board authorisation documents and correspondences between NetOne and RBZ and tender documents relating to the Huawei deal.

Finally underway

The court case finally commenced earlier this afternoon and the former Minister told the court that he was not attempting to defraud the government. In fact, through his, lawyer, Tembinkosi Magwaliba, Mandiwanzira claims he was actually the good guy as he was trying to stop Huawei from overcharging. His Lawyer said;

The deal was for Megawatt to do the audit for free, and the accused person as the then minister of information was engaged by Megawatt and then he was dragged to court to answer for the fraud allegations.

Now the accused person is equal to someone who chased over a thief to recover something which was stolen but then asked to answer for what was stolen,” said Magwaliba while submitting his application

The post Supa Mandiwanzira: I Did Not Defraud The Government appeared first on Techzim.

Google’s Applied Digital Skills looks like THE STUFF! And the fact that all this content is available for free is quite amazing! The fact that the lessons offered on the portal are suitable for all age groups, from adults to children as young as Primary School students. If you’ve taken Google’s Digital Marketing course then you’ll know they have some really valuable content in these courses.

What lessons are on offer?

So the applied digital skills site has 34 lessons on offer and some lessons are as short as 45 minutes whilst others last as long as 9 hours, so there’s a lot of content to chew through. Some of the more interesting lessons I saw for adults include;

• Event planning
• Online research
• How to make a budget
• Project planning
• Job hunting
• Effective communications at the office
• How to negotiate for better salaries
• Building an online business

These are not all of them but they are certainly the ones that piqued my interest. A course like the one on effective communication is something that your entire company can take and being able to do so from one source without compromising your budget sounds like a good idea to me. Now I haven’t personally watched any of these just yet but I think as a free tool, it might be a good place to start.

For High -school and primary students these were some of the lessons that seem valuable;

• Technology, Ethics, and Security
• Technology’s Role in Current Events
• Create an Editing Tool with Programming
• Data analysis & Data visualization for beginners
• Program a Progress Bar
• Spreadsheet organization

It’s clear that from these courses your kids could learn a number of valuable skills such as coding, staying safe on the internet, spreadsheets and when all is said done they can still take the adult courses and tackle the more complex content if your kid has the taste for it. Anyway more free learning material is always welcome and having some of these skills will certainly give you a competitive edge, either in the classroom or office.

Check out Google’s Applied Digital Skills Course

Also read, Google Adds More Free Courses To Their Digital Skills for Africa Educational Content

The post Is Google’s New Applied Digital Skills Free Course Worth A Look? appeared first on Techzim.

The Opera Browser has always been enthusiastic about crypto. If you recall, Opera became one of the first mainstream browsers with a built-in crypto wallet last year. Though some people’s faith and the hype surrounding cryptos has died down a bit, Opera shall not be shaken. They are still paying attention to that space and they recently announced that Opera users will be able to buy cryptos from this very wallet.

According to Coindesk, Opera has partnered with “regulated crypto brokerage Safello to provide the cash-to-crypto exchange.” Safello will handle the verification side of things and Opera has said that these transactions will take less than a minute. The thinking behind Opera’s move is that buy increasing usage, cryptos can finally creep into the mainstream. Opera’s crypt product lead, Charles Hamel, said;

We think that the next important phase for crypto will come from usage and that for it to reach wider adoption, it has to be easy to buy and easy to use.

The post You Can Now Buy Crypto’s Straight From The Opera Browser appeared first on Techzim.

Not everyone of us can afford the Xiaomi the Mi Band 3, the king of smart bands which goes for around $23.99 online or $55 at the Mistore at Eastgate. That doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the wearable movement. There are still a host of cheaper, albeit less known, smart band brands out there. The L6 Colour screen smart-band is one such band.

It retails for around $13  on Gearbest and even just by looking at the pictures on the site you can tell it is not the Mi band. It does however have comparable features including the standard heart rate monitor, a pedometer, WhatsApp message alerts, call alerts, SMS alerts, sleep monitoring and even the awesome raise wrist to brighten feature.

I was curious so I bought two, seeing as it is that there is two of me. Below are the unboxing pictures in no particular order.

The pictures

I will be posting a review on this band this coming week.

The post Pictures: L6 Colour Smart-band Unboxing appeared first on Techzim.

So last week one Facetime user discovered a bug that allowed callers to spy on their contacts and the internet went into a frenzy. Apple has always prioritised privacy so having something this devastating happen was obviously a big deal. Apple promised an update within a week and last night that update started rolling out.

Apple has also said that they will be compensating the 14-year-old kid who discovered the bug. Apple reps also spoke about the update in a press statement;

Today’s software update fixes the security bug in Group FaceTime. We again apologize to our customers and we thank them for their patience.

In addition to addressing the bug that was reported, our team conducted a thorough security audit of the FaceTime service and made additional updates to both the FaceTime app and server to improve security

How to get the new update

To install the software updates on iOS devices;

• go to Settings
• -> General
• -> Software Updates and tap “Download and Install.”

On a Mac;

• Open the App Store
• go to the Updates section

The post Apple Finally Fixed That FaceTime Bug appeared first on Techzim.

Surely all those statements by the government about E-governance or to make technology integral seem gibberish when it can’t even maintain its websites. Maybe I’m being overzealous and I’m blowing this out of proportion but who knows what we are losing as a country by just having non-functional websites.

I would like to believe that if a foreign investor wants to invest $100 million in Zimbabwe, in any sector, they would first start by extensively researching about Zimbabwe (and the sector they want to invest in). Someone who wants to invest in the health sector will surely care to take a look at the Ministry of Health website for valuable news and information of that sector.

The investor ‘googles’ and finds a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade website. They are happy until they find out that the website is not working. Embarrassing. An insistent investor will then perhaps turn to biased newspapers and other publications for information.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list

Below, I have just listed 8 important websites (that are not working) and the kind of information a potential investor will probably be looking for on this website. The list is not exhaustive so just tell us (in the comment section below) some important website run by the government that are not working and we fit them in the article.

1 Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education –www.mhtestd.gov.zw/

Information about the state of manpower development in Zimbabwe.

2. Ministry of Health and Child Care – www.mohcc.gov.zw/

Information about the state of health and the healthcare delivery system in Zimbabwe.

3. Department of the Registrar General – www.rg.gov.zw/

Information about passport applications and citizenship application.

4. Department of Deeds – http://www.dcip.gov.zw/

Information about owning assets like land and information about company registration.

5. Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Trade – www.zimfa.gov.zw/

Information about Zimbabwe’s relations with other countries and how it conducts trade with them.

6. Ministry of Industry Commerce And Enterprise Development – www.mic.gov.zw/index.php

Information of commerce in Zimbabwe and commerce laws.

7. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development – www.zimtreasury.gov.zw/

Information about the general economy, the country’s fiscal and monetary policy.

8. Zimbabwe Government Portal – Government of Zimbabwe – www.zim.gov.zw/

Information about the general state of affairs in the country.

More disappointment

9. Zimstat – www.zimstat.co.zw/

This is perhaps the most important website for an investor since it provides statistics of almost everything that happens in Zimbabwe. Although the website works, you only have to wait at least 6 minutes for it to open. How’s that for the most important website?

Why its important for government websites to properly function

It’s super important for the government to have a websites that are up to date and functional because the world now expects to get information easily from wherever they are before they can jump on a plane to a place they have never been. Ease of doing business starts from ease of accessing information.

The post Embarrassing: Here Are Important Government Websites That Have Been Down For Some Time appeared first on Techzim.

Technomag, a Zimbabwean technology blog has apparently partnered Star FM, one of the top radio stations in Zimbabwe. The partnership sees Star FM reading out content from Technomag.

This is quite strategic for the blog as they can get to expand their brand recognition and reach to an audience that may not be online. Radio is still consumed by a lot people in Zimbabwe and of course a good proportion may not have heard about Technomag before which is a good base to tap for any blog.

Star FM itself is a strong partner to have because since launching in 2015, the radio station has been steadily increasing listenership and market share. They have some of the most popular presenters in Zimbabwe right now which of course include Patisani and KVG who host the drive time show.

Talking of drive time, a lot of drivers in Zimbabwe can only access Star FM on the FM frequency. This is because most cars being driven in Zimbabwe are pre-owned Japanese imports which mostly come with radios that do not go above 100MHz. In fact FM radio frequencies are between 76 and 95MHz. The 90-108mHz band was for television before they went digital.

All the other radio stations in Zimbabwe broadcast above 100MHz and so are inaccessible to ex-Jap cars unless one installs a frequency expander and how many people know to do that? This gives Star FM a very good position in the market especially because a travelling audience is fully captive and they could really tap into this advantage in the competitive advertising landscape.

Technomag has partnered Zimpapers, the owners of Star FM before and used to contribute a technology column in The Herald, Zimbabwe’s largest daily newspaper.

The post Technomag Seems To Have Partnered Star Fm In A Very Good Strategic Move appeared first on Techzim.