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Herald Reporter

GOVERNMENT plans to speed up the launch of the $25 million Information Communication Technology (ICT) Young Innovators fund, which is aimed at incentivising and rewarding innovation by young technopreneurs.In a statement, the Ministry of Information Communications Technology, Postal and Courier Services said they were delighted by the enthusiasm shown by ICT innovators in Bulawayo and Harare.

This comes after the ministry, together with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, successfully hosted the Innovators Showcase in Harare with hundreds of innovators showcasing their ideas.

“The Harare event followed another successful showcase held in Bulawayo. The ministry would like to thank stakeholders that made the events possible. We are happy to announce plans to speed up the launch of the $25 million ICT Young Innovators fund, which is aimed at incentivising and rewarding innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking thereby creating a breed of young technopreneurs,” the ministry said.

The ministry said following the successful events in Bulawayo and Harare, corporate bodies had expressed interest in harnessing and tapping into talent that was awash at the events.

“The ministry, working with POTRAZ, is hosting a corporate breakfast with industry players and the innovators on Wednesday 12 October 2016 (tomorrow), to create a platform for all stakeholders to interact and create working partnerships. Stakeholders that are interested in taking part must contact Sybo Muteiwa at POTRAZ for registration.”

The ministry said it would soon launch the ICT Innovation Fund, which was the country’s largest ICT research and innovation programme to date.

According to the ministry, the programme intended to combine research and innovation in a single programme, bridging the gap between innovative research and the market place by providing support from original research to commercialisation.

It also intends to focus on resolving productivity and value addition challenges common to all Zimbabwean citizens in the field of communication, agriculture, mobile financial services, entertainment, manufacturing, health, energy efficiency and climate change; and, to simplify access to incremental start-up capital for all eligible innovators, universities, institutes in Zimbabwe.

The ministry said, “The ICT Innovation Fund will go a long way in making our country the innovation hub of Southern Africa.“In order to stimulate innovation in Zimbabwe, the Government is working on finalising the operational modalities of innovation centres to be equipped and installed in all 10 provinces by December 2017.

“This approach to research and innovation by Government, strengthens the role of demand-side ICT policies for promoting innovation.“There is need to induce local demand for innovations by offering financial rewards to innovators who solve pre-defined challenges that bring commercial or economic benefits to their enterprises and the Zimbabwean society in general,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said young Zimbabweans had already made their mark in the global ICT arena with Ian Mutamiri and Kudzayi Chisinga creating innovations that were recognised by Google as well as the World Summit on the Information Society.