By Gideon Madzikatidze
Several innovation and entrepreneurship researchers have pleaded with the Zimbabwean government and policy-makers to establish a public-led accelerator within the country’s economy to realise feasible economic development and stability.
Presenting their findings during a Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe’s (POTRAZ) Information Communication Technology Research Journal Symposium in Harare this Wednesday, researchers have pleaded with authorities to consider complementary infrastructure within the existing innovation ecosystem.
“Within our futuristic research, we are recommending the establishment for a public-led accelerator within the economy by policy-makers. So we looked at the existing innovation systems where we have got innovation hubs, enterprises, start-ups, among others,” Initial Mlambo who is one of the researchers said.
“Looking into the current ecosystem in terms of performance assessment in terms of how the ecosystem is currently performing and realised that there are no disruptive technologies that have been developed, hence promoting development of a public-led accelerator,” Mlambo said.
Meanwhile, Dr Rosemary Farai Masaire who is a lecturer and researcher has noted that linking innovation and entrepreneurship is crucial to realise development.
“We focus on how the students are embracing innovation and entrepreneurship upon realising that students have many ideas, but we identified that the missing link is funding,” Masaire said.
“Others are also scared to share their innovations due to fear of losing intellectual property rights from ideas. So in our paper, we were trying to address those gaps and create synergies between government, industry, academic institutions, among other players,” Masaire added.
The 2024 POTRAZ ICT research journal symposium was premised on the need to advance research in information communication technology for a digitally inclusive society.