Zimbabwe has opened an Artificial Intelligence, Digital and Innovation Hub at Nyamuroro Vocational Training Centre in Gokwe North, so young people outside the big cities can learn AI and coding too.
Major Highlights
- Who’s behind it: A partnership between the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Uncommon.org.
- What it offers: Access to computers, digital skills training, AI, coding and innovation opportunities for young people.
- The equipment: The Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services provided 20 laptops.
- Already running: 52 young people from Gokwe North have enrolled and started training.
- A first: The Youth Ministry describes it as its first AI Digital Innovation Hub in a rural area. Its location is meant to show that digital transformation should reach beyond the cities.
- Built on connectivity: The launch follows the Presidential Internet Scheme, introduced at Nyamuroro High School in April 2025 to expand broadband across Zimbabwe’s 2,400 administrative wards.
- Where it should lead: ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera, represented at the launch by Kudakwashe Muzenda, wants the hub to build practical digital solutions for farmers, small businesses and schools. She also wants it linked to the 1.5 Million Coders Programme and the CYBERUS cybersecurity programme.
- The line of the day: Mavetera said connectivity opens the door, and skills are what let people walk through it.
KINI BIG DEAL
Getting internet to a village is only half the job. If people don’t have the skills and the equipment to use it, the connection changes very little. Zimbabwe is trying to do both in the same place: broadband first, now a hub with a training centre.
The minister’s challenge to the hub is also worth noting: build things for farmers, small businesses and schools, not just train people. That’s the difference between a skills programme and one that helps the local economy.
