COUNTRY FOCUS: ZIMBABWE
“
ZIMBABWE’S ECONOMIC
PROGRESS WILL HINGE ON
THE PROVISION OF WORLD-
CLASS CONNECTIVITY AND
COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS
WITHIN THE CORPORATE AND
BUSINESS SECTOR.
and communications solutions within the
corporate and business sector and, as a
matter of course, should include enterprise
grade MPLS, VSAT services, fibre, WiMAX,
cloud solutions, server hosting and software
licensing, data centre operations, intrusion
prevention solutions, communications and
IoT solutions.
Like many other developing nations,
Zimbabwe is undergoing a transition from
an agriculture and manufacturing-based
economy to one focused primarily on the
service sector.
Zimbabwe’s own transition to a service-
based economy has partly been caused
by the economic meltdown that saw an
80–90% unemployment rate in the formal
sector and an upsurge in freelancers,
entrepreneurs and small-to-medium-sized
enterprises, which in turn has led to an
ever-increasing move to the digitalisation
of services.
Nhena Nyagura, CEO of Dandemutande
tastes and preferences. The promotion of
tech and innovation hubs will also be crucial
in aiding the growth of a thriving service-
based economy.
Just one example is the extreme cash
shortages, which resulted in a shift in the
provision of financial services from physical
transactions to online transactions.
There has also been an increase in online
mobile financial services. Insurance can now
be bought online and, in the tourism sector,
it is now possible for customers to book and
pay online for hotels, restaurants and cruises.
There is no doubt that as the economy
opens up, Zimbabwean business will need
to respond to the disruption technology is
causing globally and the change in customer
48
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com