Zimbabwe’s government is considering ways to slash costs of information and communication technology (ICT) products and services to boost the country’s tech uptake, an official reportedly said Tuesday.

Zimbabwe’s ICT minister, Nelson Chamisa, told journalists, on the sidelines of the E-Tech Africa Exhibition being held in Harare, that his ministry aims to achieve what he says is an information technology community by 2015.

And in order to help achieve this, the government is considering ways of reducing the prices of products such as laptops to increase ICT accessibility.

“We are currently working with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to come up with affordable prices for ICT products," Zimbabwe's news agency New Ziana quoted Chamisa as saying.

Chamisa further said that the removal of duty on imported ICT equipment and products was the first step towards achieving lower prices.

"The world is becoming more of a global village thus we want to ensure the whole country is conscious of information technology.

"We want to make sure every school, hospital, church, among many others is connected online for easy transactions and communication," he added.

"ICT is the future. It is the key in acquiring new skills and techniques in agriculture, education, mining among other many sectors of the economy," he said.

But Zimbabwean ICT analyst Robert Ndlovu has questioned the sustainability of reducing prices for tech products, as he says it could hit distributors and resellers hard.

“That’s good news for the consumer, but I’m not sure that’s good news for the retailers, the wholesalers,” Ndlovu told ITWeb Africa.

“I mean, who’s going to bear the brunt? Somebody has to carry the cost,” he added.

Ndlovu says that the country can reduce duties on products, but controlling the prices from distributors could be difficult.

Ndlovu further says that there are too many political statements concerning ICT in Zimbabwe, from the likes of Nelson Chamisa, which are unlikely to materialise owing to the country’s limited resources.

“He wants to help ICT, but some of the statements are impractical,” said Ndlovu.