Minister of ICT, Supa Mandiwanzira
THE Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Service will on September 28 host the Zimbabwe ICT innovator showcase.
The objective of the showcase, being coordinated by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), is to identify, harvest and support young innovators in the country to develop ideas, protect their intellectual property and deploy their technical solutions for use in the Zimbabwe and global market.
Minister of ICT, Supa Mandiwanzira, is expected to officiate at the event.
“We are very excited about the much anticipated Harare ICT innovators showcase and judging from the number of registrations, we expect this event to be a success. We hope that the applications that will be exhibited will help provide ICT driven business solutions to the everyday challenges we meet while providing an opportunity to innovators and application developers to monetize and bring their ideas to life,” said Mandiwanzira.
The event gives ICT innovators a chance to present their concepts to a panel of judges who would then select the best innovations. This second Zimbabwe ICT Innovators showcase has already proven to be hugely attractive with over 80 innovators having been registered for the Harare edition. Over half of these exhibitors are corporates whilst the remainder are individuals.
The event is coming at a time when the country was witnessing a vibrant and fast growing communications sector underpinned by substantial investments in network infrastructure, including expansion of the broadband fibre network, data and internet expansion.
Government is also expecting to capitalise on the ICT sector’s forays into the financial sector, ordering cash transfers through the mobile money services to start contributing to government tax like other banking services.
Mobile banking services have helped bring banking to the unbanked population.
ICT is considered as one of the major pillars of economic revival in Zimbabwe after surpassing other sectors in performance over the last decade.