ZTE Visit Shows Growth Potential Of Zimbabwe’s Telecoms Industry

The visit by ZTE Global president and executive director Zhao Xianming along with his high profile delegation shows how Zimbabwe is one investment hub for globally renowned technology companies

ZTE Global CEO,  visited Zimbabwe to meet with the Minister of ICT Hon Supa Mandiwanzira and other members from TelOne, NetOne and POTRAZ to discuss investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.

By Pearson Mbendera

ZTE is a global giant that reported a 16 billion turnover last year and their presence in Zimbabwe is a sigh of good things to come in the telecoms sector.

This is not the first global telecoms giant to visit Zimbabwe, two months ago, Minister Mandiwanzira met with Huawei officials, ZTE has been backhauling Econet for a long period of time right now and they are looking at expanding their interests and investments in Zimbabwe. Minister Mandiwanzira lauded the telecoms giant for showing interest in Zimbabwe.

Just a couple of days ago, Econet Wireless reported a $49 million profit for the half year ended 31 August 2017, showcasing how well the company is doing in Zimbabwe despite the economic hardships we are facing and it also highlighted the potential of the telecoms sector in Zimbabwe and any investment from ZTE will only serve to even broaden that sector.

When Minister Mandiwanzira led a delegation of Zimbabweans to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecoms World 2017 event in Busan, Korea, there were a lot of industry shaking developments presented including 5G technology which is yet to reach Zimbabwe.

The ITU event highlighted a huge technology gap that needs to be bridged. But while the absence of cutting edge technology may show how backward this country is, it also shows the many opportunities in the sector as individuals and businesses alike can tap into the technology gap that exists between Zimbabwe and 1st world nations and capitalise on it and create a robust telecoms industry in this country.

Many businesses have already benefited from telecoms in Zimbabwe, despite not being primarily in the telecoms sector. Because of social media marketing, CBZ was able to cut down their marketing expenditure, something that couldn’t be made possible without ICT.

From communication to service delivery, from food production to medicine, there isn’t anything that hasn’t been made better by ICT and in particular the telecoms sector which has the potential to transform the economy of Zimbabwe and the growth of the sector will in turn lead to the growth of the nation’s economy as a whole.