Addressing decision makers and delegates during the e-tech Africa, the minister broke the news when he said they are looking towards $25 million to nurture young players and developers to start creating own apps and advised telecommunication players to tap into such talents to be profitable, instead of resisting the technology.
We have greed that 1% of revenue made of by our local players will go towards the promotion and development of local apps creation and we are looking forward to $20- 25million within the next 24 months to sustain the projects, said the minister
Zimbabwean Mobile Network Operators (MNO)s have spoken sharply against Over The Top Service (OTTs,) providers like Whatsapp, Skype and Viber and asked the ministry of ICT to regulate the service since they are just making profits from their infrastructure and revenue without any form of investiment.
The argument seems sane from a business perspective, and warrantied that our MNOs are losing out on potential revenue hence OTTs should be treated with all the business ethics they deserve as social is now business.
The Zimbabwean minister of ICT Postal and Courier services Hon Supa Mandiwanzira said that he has received reports from MNOs proposing that OTTs should be regulated and network operators were not happy about the business model and risk they pose.
The minister however made a very proposition and asked our MNOs and Local app developer to be more creative and start seeing the serious opportunities they can use and as well monetise from , instead of complaining over other technological advancements.
This is an opportunity to develop our own young Zimbabwean developers across universities to develop local apps and solutions , The government and all mobile network operators should come together and create an app that will rival these OTTs and then share revenue created there of with operators and developer.
The message has been received with so much excitement as local players have always bemoaned lack of support and resources to create competitive products.
Today multi-million dollar business are built on software solutions solving our daily business and socil problems andthe new millionaires emerging are all software and application developers, signalling the death of brick and mortar business models.
The Zimbabwean government is greatly commended for coming out strong behind such a fast growing and dynamic sector and such visionary policies from the miser deserves all the national support from all progressive Zimbabweans.
Technomag