Now for a lot of you, that claim might sound like I’m being completely idiotic or I’m a shill who’s been bought. But the way I see it, it’s still the definition of early days, and this is perhaps the only period where we can give our new minister, and any minister at that, a chance to prove themselves different. Especially when you look at the sheer potential for impact that the Ministry of ICT alone could bring. Watching King Kandoro’s recent Properganda video reiterated that for me. The episode pretty much reminds everyone how powerful tech is in today’s world, and how the ICT minister isn’t just in charge of say, the parliament building Wi-Fi password, but has a ministry that affects everything from our banking to transportation and couriering. Hence, like TechZim, various tech workers in and out of Zim, and pretty much every Zimbo who wants StarLink to be legal here, the episode goes into ways that our ICT Minister and Ministry can change the day to day lives of the average Zimbabwean by making small and big changes.

A lot of these are ideas we’ve all heard about or would think of too. After all an average teenager can tell you we need cheaper internet prices and better connectivity in rural areas, and anyone in a border town will tell you how borrowing neighboring country’s line and using that is far superior in that area to what Econet and NetOne can offer. So everyone knows that our internet coverage needs to be fixed and prices need to be better. The former might be far more expensive, but the latter can surely be looked into and regulated, especially at a time where Starlink has seemingly become the government’s newest frenemy while Econet, NetOne, Telecel and friends run rampant with terrible pricing AND service passing the ball of which is which among them. If don’t want us having to adopt a minimum $500 satellite internet plan from Elon Musk, then make our local providers act right for starters. Yes they claim things are tough but come on, they’ve been steadily increasing even USD prices for 2 years now, squeeze them a little and make them act right, see if it doesn’t result in better pricing, better yet, as the video says,  see if it doesn’t lead to more Zimbabweans adopting remote jobs and opting to STAY in Zim, as opposed top the ever increasing brain drain that literally happens every year. That may be more of a long shot, but trust me it helps.

But obvious stuff aside, let’s go to the thing most people don’t think about when we talk about the ministry of ICT: the Postal and Courier Services part. Both TechZim and Kandoro have mentioned how pivotal fixing ZimPost and courier services in Zim would fix so much about the country. And it’s true. Think about it this way, Amazon pretty much relied on American courier services in the US to become the company it is today and build its own transport network. Zimbabwe has so many online store startups that have tried to make a dent and literally thousands of people selling on the likes of Facebook Marketplace. All those people are an existing customer base Zimpost could tap into and make crazy money out of while making a very simple but pivotal thing, transporting goods, much easier and more accessible for Zimbos that have needed it for decades. The whole company needs to be revamped, from how people access it now, to the services, pricing, and yes, an app that allows package tracking along with liability clauses for if things go wrong. That’s how you make Zimbabweans trust you, and that’s how you make everyone from young entrepreneurs to people sending goods to the rural areas trust you and invest in Zimpost as the platform for transporting goods in Zimbabwe, AKA, what it should be. And this is all without mentioning the other big point Properganda mentioned: making Zimpost tap into the money tranfer market that Innbucks, CityHopper and more have made become a fintech boom for the country. No one has reach quite like Zimpost, so why can’t it come with a competitor of it’s own. And if it can’t that’s fine, partnering with these services makes them even more accessible for the average Zimbabwean, making them even more useful as a resource.

Another big area for us is partnering directly with the youth and young tech entrepreneurs to create an ecosystem of tech companies, learning institutions (like colleges) and incubation so we can actually have:

1. Local, capable tech companies and entrepreneurs bring their products to a wider Zimbabwean audience and beyond, while receiving adequate support from their government to actually thrive in their economy. This can be through anything from grants to reduced duty for registered SMEs importing ICT products.

2. Work educational institutions to foster more tech skills. Yes, this exists in some forms at universities, but diving deeper into high school levels is a MUST. Not to mention sponsoring local companies in point a) creates actual local co-operations for these students learn from aspire to work at and hopefully, be employed by in their internship yeas or after graduation.

3. Be forward thinking in education focused agendas: let everyone from relevant local businessmen to university researchers give ideas/consultancy to craft at least some agendas for the Ministry as a whole or at the very least how it partners with the youth. We can’t start pushing AI as an agenda 4 years from now when it’s legitimately a movement right now. And yes, AI may be a bit of a reach when lots of rural areas children still can’t use a laptop, but let experts in everything from using such technologies to importing them at a favorable rate help make that happen.

And this is just scratching the surface. TechZim again mentioned business exchange programs, government funded incubator hubs and so on. And again, that is because the ideas are there. So many of them, too many maybe. But even picking a few and running with them, the easiest ones to implement even, would make a huge difference in the country.

All that to say, this is why I believe our Hon. Dr. Mavetera and the Ministry of ICT as a whole can still make the right moves if they want to. In fact, it takes either being completely stagnant or anti-progress to actually mess up a ministry that’s right on the cusp of significant progress. And who doesn’t want productive progress? It makes the country better, it can help the government legally make more money and it makes a young, female minister be the face of productive change in a country that’s needed it for way too long in the tech sector and beyond. It’s really a win-win here our new minister just bothers to make even a few of the key suggestions people keep making be put into motion. So yes, I personally think there’s still potential here, hope even. And while I’m cautious enough to expect disappointment, I’m hoping my optimism is somehow in line with our ICT Minister’s goals as well.

Over to you Hon. Mavetera, we are in your hands.

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