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Professor Jonathan Moyo

Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
THE Government has introduced the District Innovation Start-up Hubs (DISH) programme in the country’s 65 districts to create business enterprise, employment and boost the country’s economy.

The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Jonathan Moyo, yesterday said his ministry was at an advanced stage of establishing the DISH programme, which will target graduates and highly talented young people.

He described the new programme as the second phase of the STEM initiative towards the new economy.

“As part of Zimbabwe’s thrust to develop a new economy driven by science and technology, my ministry is now at an advanced stage of establishing the DISH programme in all the 65 districts of the country.

“The ministry will resource these hubs to harness and develop technology start-ups through the provision of professional business incubation services, until they mature and can stand on their own to provide technological, engineering and business solutions to local, regional and even international problems,” said Prof Moyo who was officiating at the graduation of 588 students at Hillside Teachers’ College in Bulawayo.

He said although the country was grappling with economic challenges, it was quite evident that the required solutions across all sectors of the economy and society required technological and engineering solutions.

Prof Moyo said the DISH programme will be a source of new high-end skills to drive tech start-ups by employment seeking graduates from higher and tertiary institutions to exploit the vast opportunities brought by technology.

“In essence these will be high-tech employment creators. Special focus will be on the development of software applications, which improve the quality of products and services that we use in our everyday lives in rural and urban communities.

“Our country requires modernisation through digitisation across all economic and social sectors be it agriculture, mining, manufacturing, health, tourism, education, transport, public sector and service delivery,” said Prof Moyo.

Innovation hubs, Prof Moyo added, offer a tried and tested model of efficient National System Innovation that brings rapid changes in the structure of an economy to a high-tech, knowledge driven economy.

“This model has worked in countries such as South Korea, Singapore, India, Brazil and Cuba among others. It’s the ministry’s view that the time has come for Zimbabwe to develop and harvest the fruits of its education system.

“The key missing link is the absence of innovation hubs. The thrust to create innovation hubs has already started with universities that are working on modalities to establish intra institution hubs to incubate industries,” said Prof Moyo.

He emphasised the need for a new mindset to unleash the possibilities of the future to industrialise and modernise the country through technology and engineering start-ups. “Teachers’ colleges like Hillside are a significant part of this, through their products who are both consumers and in some cases are resource persons in the proposed innovation hubs.

“The mindset innovation is best instilled in the classroom, hence success from DISH will be attained if and when teachers develop this mindset among their pupils,” said Prof Moyo.

He added that it was important for graduates to realise that they were graduating into a new and rapidly changing world. “Graduates must go out there and inspire employment creation, and remember there can be no employment creation without the application of technological or engineering solutions.

“For a long time our curriculum was designed for a traditional job seeker and thus influenced our society to think that way. We want to train people who make jobs not people who look for jobs,” said Prof Moyo.

The graduation ceremony was attended by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe Professor Levy Nyagura, other senior officials from different higher and tertiary institutions and government departments. — @pamelashumba1