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Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
President Mnangagwa yesterday capped 364 graduates at Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) who excelled in various entrepreneurial disciplines.

The President officiated at the graduation ceremony soon after his installation as the university’s second Chancellor.

After his installation, congratulatory messages from various respected personalities in the academia poured in.

HIT Vice Chancellor Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe said the institution was committed to nurture graduates responsive to industry demands.

“We are passionately committed to growing interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary expertise and creative thinking, together with practical application and problem solving directly relevant and responsive to various sectors of our economy and the lives of the communities we serve,” said Eng Kanhukamwe.

“We will deploy our distinctive research capabilities to make new discoveries, to innovate through practice and to generate ideas and a culture that enriches the economy and country. Our unique mix of interdisciplinary expertise and collaborative clustering will help to solve complex local and national problems.

“By building on what we have achieved and embracing the possibilities of digital, economic and social transformation, HIT will help to shape the future for rapid industrialisation and modernisation of our economy. Our task is to bring the talents of our staff and students together with industry and the community to renew ourselves through teaching, learning, research and collaborative innovation, in order to generate research outputs with societal impact.

“We wish therefore to assure you, Your Excellency, that HIT shall strive to uphold and deliver on its mandate which is to develop, incubate, commercialise and transfer technology that contributes to the industrialisation and modernisation of our great nation. Our destiny is to be the stimulant of scholarship in innovation.”

Eng Kanhukamwe said over the years HIT had made significant inroads in development and innovation.

He said the institution’s research output had been characterised by production of relevant outputs such as intellectual property.

He said the institution was incubating several start-up projects which included Foodtech (Private) Limited, a company wholly owned by HIT through its commercial arm Institech Holdings.

Other start-up projects by HIT are PowerTeam Technologies and Lads (Private) Limited.

The two companies are responsible for transformer manufacturing based on patented designs by HIT and commercial software developments, respectively.

“HIT is also one of the six institutions that has been selected to develop an innovation hub. These hubs will enable the development, incubation and commercialisation of new technologies including the start-up projects.

“Furthermore, increasing efforts are being made to speedily deal with investors that have approached us with interest to invest in infrastructure development, particularly with the construction of student hostels. Most of these investors have responded to your call Your Excellency, that Zimbabwe is Open for Business. We hope to conclude the discussions and establish mutually beneficial build, operate and transfer agreements with these investors.”

Eng Kanhukamwe said they would continue to seek Government assistance with regards to the construction of other infrastructure such as classrooms and laboratories.

He said they were also seeking collaborations with other universities in line with President Mnangagwa’s foreign policy stance that Zimbabwe should claim its space in the community of nations.