Why Mberengwa Matters: Zimbabwe’s Digital Future Will Be Won Or Lost In Rural Schools

By Ross Moyo

When NetOne’s Group CEO stood in Mberengwa and said “a learner’s geographical location should never determine their access to digital opportunities,” he was naming Zimbabwe’s deepest digital divide.

Zimbabwe has made real progress on connectivity. The country has three mobile network operators, over 14 million active mobile subscriptions, and 4G coverage in all major towns and growth points. Fibre has reached most provincial capitals. E-learning platforms like Ruzivo, Akello and the Ministry’s own digital content portal now exist.

But progress has been uneven. And uneven progress is the story of Mberengwa.

Mberengwa District, in Midlands Province, has over 150 primary and secondary schools, many of them in communal areas far from the Harare-Bulawayo highway. The district produces teachers, nurses, engineers and miners, but it has long been on the wrong side of the digital map.

National data shows the pattern clearly:

Zimbabwe’s literacy rate is 92 percent, one of the highest in Africa. Yet digital literacy is estimated at under 35 percent nationally, and under 20 percent in rural districts.

Only 1 in 3 rural households has access to a smartphone that can run educational apps, compared to 2 in 3 urban households.

Over 60 percent of schools nationally do not have a functional computer laboratory with internet.

Load shedding and the cost of data remain the two biggest barriers cited by rural headmasters in POTRAZ surveys. A 1GB bundle that costs $1.50 in Harare costs the same in Mberengwa, but the income to buy it is lower, and the network to use it is weaker.

That is the context for the Digitalize Zimbabwe ICT Expo Programme, and why NetOne’s role is more than branding.

Under the tripartite MOU, NetOne is not just a sponsor. It is the connectivity provider. It provides live-streaming, on-site technical support, visibility and exhibition infrastructure. Without that, a Schools Fair in Mberengwa would be a hall with posters. With it, it becomes a live classroom connected to the rest of the country.

The GCEO framed this as a Vision 2030 issue, and he is right. Vision 2030 targets upper-middle-income status by 2030. That requires a GDP per capita of over $5,000, up from around $1,700 today. No country has made that jump without a digital workforce.

NDS2, which runs from 2026 to 2030, makes this explicit. Its pillars include digital economy, innovation, human capital development and infrastructure. The Digitalize Zimbabwe programme sits at the intersection of all four.

“By investing in the digital skills of our young people today, we are preparing a generation capable of driving innovation, creating employment and contributing to Zimbabwe’s economic transformation tomorrow,” the GCEO said.

The economic argument is powerful. The World Bank estimates that a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration in low-income countries raises GDP growth by 1.38 percent. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that every job created in the ICT sector creates 3 to 4 indirect jobs in other sectors.

For Mberengwa, that means a learner who learns coding today could be building an agritech app for local farmers tomorrow, selling cattle online, or running a digital marketing business from a growth point. That is not theory. It is already happening in Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare, where young developers are building solutions for local problems.

The challenge is teachers. Zimbabwe has about 140,000 teachers. Less than 30 percent have received formal training in ICT integration in the classroom. The GCEO acknowledged this directly.

“We must also appreciate the important role played by teachers. As educators, you are at the centre of preparing the next generation for a technology-driven world,” he said.

If the programme is to succeed beyond the fair, it must leave behind more than banners. It must leave behind trained teachers, working devices, affordable data for schools, and a maintenance plan for the equipment donated.

NetOne says its participation goes beyond providing connectivity. “We see ourselves as an enabler of digital inclusion, innovation and socio-economic development,” the GCEO said.

Mberengwa will be the test of that claim. If learners in Mberengwa can access the same coding tutorials, the same AI tools and the same online exams as learners in Harare, then Digitalize Zimbabwe will have done something real.

If not, it will be another expo that came and went.