Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has allocated US$17.9 million towards ICT with research and development, science/tech business incubation and 'modernisation' listed as priorities.

The Minister presented the country's 2019 national budget and also confirmed the government will proceed on the partial privatisation of beleaguered state-owned telecoms, the fixed phone and internet services telco telOne, as well as nd mobile operator NetOne and telecel.

Ncube wants the companies to be privatised in the next twelve months. "The 2019 Budget proposes the privatisation of at least five public enterprises, namely TelOne, NetOne/ Telecel, ZIMPOST and POSB," he said.

The government is looking to introduce biometric registration of all civil servants as of 1 January 2019 to tackle the issue of 'ghost workers'.

This has cost the government millions of dollars in wage bills, according to Ncube. "Ghost workers are contributing to the burgeoning public service wage bill which accounts for 90 % of the total revenue."

Ncube believes the system will go a long way in re-orienting budget expenditures towards growth enhancing and poverty-reducing developmental programmes

The registration is designed to be rigorous and involves capturing data from various sources including letters of appointment, academic records, national identification documents, work history and other data.

The above system will ensure every person being paid by Government is properly accounted for.