by Innocent Mujeri
President Emmerson Mnangagwa today interrupted his three week vacation to tour the Zimbabwe Information Technology Company (ZITCO), a locally registered ICT device manufacturing plant, which is set to produce a wide range of ICT devices.
The company is located at the TelOne Msasa Factory site in Harare.
President Mnangagwa was accompanied by his deputy, General (Rtd) Constantino Chiwenga, Minister of State Security Owen Ncube, ICT deputy Minister Dingumuzi Phuti, Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube and other senior government officials.
President Mnangagwa commended the innovation and said the Second Republic will support innovative companies.
“As we were walking around, we said this is what we should have done many years back but as it is, once we have begun we should do everything possible to make sure that your vision is realised,” said the President.
The ICT device assembly line was donated to the Government of Zimbabwe by the Chinese government and provided by Inspur Group of China in 2015.
ZITCO is therefore a joint venture between the Government of Zimbabwe through Telone and Inspur.
The project was motivated by the need to supply ICT devices to public sector workers in order to enhance government’s own internal efficiency and capacity to run e- government.
The assembly has a capacity to produce a wide range of information technology products including laptops, tablets, desktops, projectors, calculators, phone sets among other electronic gadgets.
The President was briefed that the plant has a production capacity of fifty thousand units of any kind annually running a single shift. Double shifts can be run raising the capacity to hundred thousand units.
The funds needed to make the plant operational was availed by the Second Republic.
The Head of State said the Zimbabwe –China relations was bearing tangible fruits and he assured the ZITCO executives of government’s support for them to fully utilise the plant.
The President was given a brand new laptop which was branded with his name for use during his vacation.
The operationalization of the ZITCO plant is a welcome development as it creates employment opportunities for the locals and also lots of foreign currency as the company will provide a wide range of ICT gadgets which were previously imported from outside the country.
