“Zambia has attracted investments in excess of 54 million United States dollars in the Information and Communication Technology, ICT, sector,” Technology and Science Minister Felix Mutati has said.
Mr. Mutati says the investment has come in following government’s decision to waive taxes on importation of ICT equipment.
He said government took the decision to waive the taxes in order to open up the ICT sector and promote private sector involvement.
Speaking when a delegation from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, COMESA, paid a courtesy call on him in Lusaka, Mr. Mutati said digital Infrastructure in the country has since increased.
He said that Starlink, which came in last year with 100 kits, has now increased to 11 thousand kits, which he said has taken digital connectivity to a higher level.
Mr. Mutati said Zambia will be connected by optic fibre to all of its eight neighbouring countries, by next month.
“Zambia has completed connecting itself to Angola by optic fibre and the next target is Mozambique,” said Mr. Mutati.
And COMESA Director for Information and Communication Technology, Lanka Dorby, said the delegation is in the country with a consultant to asses Zambia on the possibility of setting up the Cloud Africa Ecosystem.
Ms. Dorby says Zambia is among 10 African countries which are high performers in the ICT sector and are being assessed with the possibility of hosting the cloud headquarters.
She said the Cloud Africa Ecosystem will host African data and help Industry with latest information.
Ms. Dorby said COMESA, with funding from the African Development Bank, will set up the headquarters of the Cloud Africa Ecosystem in one country and a back up data center in another country.
By Eva Hatontola
