Zimbabwe to spearhead global schools connectivity initiative
Zimbabwe
,
10 Mar 2025
Tatenda Mavetera, Zimbabwe's ICT minister, has announced that her country has been chosen to spearhead the Giga initiative, a global school internet connectivity program in Southern Africa.
Giga Project, is a collaborative global initiative by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to connect schools to the internet and information by 2030.
According to UNICEF, the project combines the funds’ experience in education and procurement, ITU’s expertise in regulation and policy, and the private sector’s ability to apply tech solutions at pace.
Speaking at the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC) hosted recently in Barcelona, Mavetera said Zimbabwe was selected to implement the Giga project.
“Giga Project : Accelerating global school connectivity. Zimbabwe was selected in Southern Africa to implement this project, provide solar and connectivity to various schools,” said Mavetera.
UNICEF said since the launch of the project in 2019, 34 countries have been provided with connectivity support, 7.79 million students have increased access to connectivity, and 2.1 million schools have been identified and mapped across 141 countries.
The Giga Project seeks to map and link up to six million schools worldwide that are still offline by 2030.
ITU director, Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava said: “We are committed to bridging the current rural- urban digital divide, digital skills divide and innovation gaps. At MWC we exchanged on concrete projects and strategies to address these challenges. We will soon launch a 15-million-Euro broadband infrastructure mapping project to deliver on our mandate.”
The minister confirmed she had discussions with Zavazava, and Dr Gift Machengete, director general, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe to cement the implementation of ITU programs in Africa, more specifically in Zimbabwe.
These include the digital skills development program, artificial intelligence acceleration centre, positioning Zimbabwe as a hub for innovation and the national broadband mapping plan which will ensure equitable access for all communities.