Story by Tichaona Kurewa
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is finalising a framework for regional cooperation in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development.
The initiative kicked off in Victoria Falls this Monday, with Zimbabwe sharing its achievements in mobile and internet penetration, alongside robust ICT legislation.
The COMESA region is making strides to formulate a regionally coordinated public and private sector ICT policy development, which Zimbabwe is already embracing through widening mobile and internet penetration as well as on the legislative side.
“According to Zimbabwe ICT Sector Second Quarter Performance Report of 2024, the mobile penetration rate was 96.76%. There was also an increase in data and internet subscriptions, at which we have now an increase on internet penetration rate of 78.55%, while broadband penetration grew to 76.37% which is key for supporting other sectors towards the digital economy.
“To this end, Zimbabwe has put in place cyber and data protection act, postal and telecommunication act which is now being amended and other associated regulations have been put in place including postal policy,” Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of ICT, Postal & Courier Services, Dr. Beaullah Chirume said.
COMESA underscored the importance of ICTs in enhancing regional integration.
“COMESA considers ICT as one of its priority sectors in enabling development and overall regional integration Therefore, COMESA ensures that initiatives such as the EGEE-ICT [Enhancement of Governance and Enabling Environment in the ICT] programme are given utmost attention to succeed. As you may be aware, the overall objective of the EGEE-ICT programme is to deepen regional integration and the growth of the ICT sector in EA-SA-IO region,” said COMESA’s Director- Infrastructurey Mr Benard Dzwanda
The two-day workshop is bringing together representatives from various COMESA member states, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Sudan, Uganda, Libya, and Kenya.
