Harness local content for Zimbabwe’s ICT Growth

Lazarus Sauti

The near absence of local information and communications technology (ICT) companies to compete effectively on the African and global market is of great concern.

The country is losing more money to other African countries and western nations for the use of foreign domain names such as dot com and dot orgs.

As a result, Zimbabwe is suffering due to its over dependence syndrome on foreign information technology (IT) products.

The Chief Executive Officer of Precise Financial Systems Limited Yele Okeremi concur and believes the over dependence on foreign software is costing Africa millions of dollars yearly on the  importation of software used in the banking, telecommunications, oil and gas, manufacturing and public sectors.

Okeremi says, “Wholesale acceptance of foreign software as superior to indigenous solutions in the economy has created an uneven ground for competition thus giving foreign software vendors an edge in the African market.”

What it means is that the inadequate local content culture in the information and communications Technology (ICT) sector has hampered the growth of Zimbabwean owned companies in the global ICT industry.

To alleviate these problems, researcher Collence Chisita believes that the government should support local content initiative and entrench the culture of building indigenous information and communication companies that can compete on the global scale.

Chisita says, “To harness local content for Zimbabwe’s information and communication growth, the government should support local content initiatives that aim to ensure that indigenously owned information and communication companies operating in the country are encouraged to have a better share of the world market.”

He adds: “These initiatives should see local information technology service providers play major roles in transforming the country’s economy.”

To successfully charnel local content for the country’s ICT progress, Chisita also believes that documentation of local content is of paramount importance.

“Documenting local content helps to increase international awareness of African heritage. Thus, the mandate of the government should be to fund for the documentation of our local content and ensure that it benefits Zimbabwe and her citizenry.”

Furthermore, to harness local content for the Zimbabwe’s ICT growth, Chisita says there is need to believe in our indigenous knowledge systems. Appreciation of our indigenous knowledge systems is a crucial step in harnessing local content for the country’s ICT’s advancement.

It is sad to note that information and communication technology local content remains grossly under developed in Zimbabwe due to many reasons such as the high cost of production and scarcity of expertise due to brain drain.

It is also important to note that the biggest threat to local ICT production and development is limited access to venture capital. This is according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The reports notes, “Other challenges to local ICT production are piracy, poor information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and inadequate protection of intellectual property rights which are hindering ICT software development and service expansion in developing regions such as Africa.”

However, Chisita believes there is hope for Zimbabwe since the ICT sector in the country is making headways. The government should fund local entrepreneurs who are interested in venturing in ICT for the sector to successfully catch up with that of other countries in the continent.

The country should also invest in local software development initiatives since it offers a lot of opportunities to the country’s development agenda.

The director of the Information and Communication Technology and Science and Technology Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Aida Opoku-Mensah, believes, “Software development is strategic for Africa’s development as it offers a lot of opportunities.”

She goes on to say: “Adapting software to local contexts helps firms to manage resources better, obtain information more efficiently and set up cost-effective business operations. Software development in African nations also creates market opportunities for developers and boosts learning, innovation and job creation in those countries.”

Since harnessing local content for Africa’s ICT growth is a multisectoral approach and requires partnerships for innovation, the government should join hands with stakeholders in the ICT and science sectors to stimulate local content IT innovation.

Chisita thus notes, “To effectively harness local content for ICT growth, stakeholders in the respective sectors need to move quickly from policies to actionable programs that benefit the country.”

Zimbabwe’s government must therefore focus on encouraging the creation of local content to fuel the educational and economic benefits of ICT.

The country needs to focus on value added services such as online content for the promotion of e-commerce.

President Robert Mugabe is distributing computers in schools. Unfortunately, the country still does not have sufficient local content.

This means stakeholder should craft policies and religiously use them to the benefit of Zimbabwe. Stakeholders should also look beyond the traditional solutions and recognise ICT innovation as a cornerstone of the country’s development.