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THE Government values online space and universal access to information, which are prerequisites to a safe and connected future, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Information, Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister, Dr Tatenda Mavetera, made the remarks on Monday during the joint commemoration of World Post Day and the 2023 International Day for Universal Access to Information at Madhlangove Primary School in Chivi, Masvingo province.

She said as the country looks forward to achieving ‘an information society by 2030’, the Government will continue developing digital literacy and empowering communities to understand the emerging technologies.

“We will also contribute to ongoing discussions around governance and ethics to ensure ICTs are reflective of community values.  Instead of exclusively looking to ‘big tech companies’, we intend to foster community-led innovation by engaging our local universities, tech enthusiasts, and other organizations to explore collaborative and locally relevant emerging tech initiatives,” she said.

“While human development is necessary for dealing with ‘digitalinequity’, alternative strategies to extend affordable access to communications are urgent. We simply cannot carry on doing things the way we have been doing and expect the exponential changes we require.”

Dr Mavetera said the Government strives to ensure that no one and no place is left behind as it journeys towards the attainment of the National Development Strategy (NDS1 and its successor NDS2) and, in particular, the Digital Economy by 2030.

She added that the liberalization of markets and the introduction ofmobile technology revolutionized the lives of people in the country by enabling them to communicate by cellphones and also be financially included through mobile money, thereby dramatically modernizing the economy and society although this development has been highly uneven.

“As our Internet penetration tracks our GNI per capita, and although our country’s Internet penetration rate is above 50 percent (actually 65.2 percent), almost half of the country’s population remains offline and does not look very different from the more than 70 percent offline in other African countries.  The barriers to Internet use for many people are, therefore, not that they are not covered by a signal, but that people do not have the resources to get online – the primary barriers being the cost of devices as well as the price of data.

“Affordability of devices and lack of awareness remain the main barriers to Internet use.  It may surprise you that some of those who do not use the Internet do not know what the Internet is,” she said.

Earlier on Mavetera launched the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) Kiosk at the Chivi District Development Office and the Chivi Community Information Centre (CIC) at Chivi Post Office, both of which will extend affordable access to communication to communities, among other benefits.

-New Ziana