Zimbabwe is still far from allowing the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) application and related services in the country, with a senior government official on Wednesday saying that Harare was still weighing the advantages and disadvantages of enabling the application.

BBM is a safe and secure instant messaging application run for Blackberry cellphones. It has gained worldwide recognition for its high level encryption technology for messages.

But Cosmas Chigwamba, the principal director in the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, told ITWeb Africa in Harare on Wednesday that it is “difficult” to determine when the service could be allowed to operate in the country.

“This one is difficult for me to answer. We are making our own assessments to find out the advantages and disadvantages of allowing the technology,” said Chigwamba.

Zimbabwe is in the midst of crafting a new ICT policy that is expected to help boost growth in the sector.

Last month, the country held a forum on drumming up views from stakeholders for input into the new policy. Government officials are also expecting the new policy to be finalised only by the end of this year.

“It’s a time consuming process. It has to go to the minister, then to parliamentary committee and then tabled in parliament. We can only expect this whole process to be done and completed by the end of the year,” said an official at the ICT Ministry who did not want to be named.

Chigwamba told a media briefing on Wednesday that the ministry had “just finished” consolidating views from the forum.

He also said Zimbabwe had made strides in rolling out e-government and governance programmes.