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Lazarus Sauti
The near absence of local information and communications technology (ICT) companies to compete effectively on the African and global market is of great concern.

Zimbabwe is losing more money to other African countries and western nations for the use of foreign domain names such as dot com and dot orgs and as a result, the country is suffering.

Yele Okeremi, Chief Executive Officer of Precise Financial Systems Limited, said over dependence on foreign software is costing Africa millions of dollars yearly on the importation of software used in the banking, telecommunications, oil and gas, manufacturing and public sectors.

“Wholesale acceptance of foreign software as superior to indigenous solutions in the economy has created an uneven ground for competition thus giving foreign software vendors an edge in the African market,” said Okeremi.

To rectify this and other problems, researcher Collence Chisita said government should support local content initiative and entrench the culture of building indigenous information and communication companies that can compete on the global scale.

“To harness local content for Zimbabwe’s information and communication growth, the government should support local content initiatives that aim to ensure that indigenously owned information and communication companies operating in the country are encouraged to have a better share of the world market,” he said, adding, “These initiatives should see local information technology service providers play major roles in transforming the country’s economy.”

To successfully charnel local content for the country’s ICT progress, Chisita also called for the documentation of local content.

“Documenting local content helps to increase international awareness of African heritage. Thus, the mandate of the government should be to fund for the documentation of our local content and ensure that it benefits Zimbabwe and her citizenry,” he said.

Furthermore, to harness local content for the Zimbabwe’s ICT growth, Chisita said there is need to believe in our indigenous knowledge systems.

“Appreciation of our indigenous knowledge systems is a crucial step in harnessing local content for the country’s ICT’s advancement. Therefore, the government should urge citizens to believe in traditional knowledge systems,” Chisita said.

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