OVER the past few weeks, we have explored artificial intelligence (AI) as a force reshaping global industry, redefining skills, and opening new pathways for young Africans into digital work.
Yet beneath every ambitious conversation about AI readiness lies a quieter truth. A digital economy is not built first on apps, innovation hubs or startup slogans.
It is built on electricity that does not falter, connectivity that does not collapse, and data infrastructure that does not live permanently beyond our borders.
Without these foundations, the most talented workforce in the world remains grounded.
Ambition meets physical foundations
Zimbabwe’s enthusiasm for digital transformation is genuine. We see it in government strategies, university programmes, coding boot camps, innovation challenges and a growing community of tech entrepreneurs.
This energy matters. But ambition alone does not run servers, power routers or cool data racks. The modern digital economy is physical before it is virtual.
It depends on fibre in the ground, stable grids on the surface, and secure computing facilities behind locked doors. These are the invisible pillars of intelligence.
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Power and data infrastructure
In recent years, Zimbabwe has made notable progress in establishing these foundational elements for a digital economy. On the connectivity front, the country has witnessed an expansion of fibre-optic networks, particularly in major urban centres such as Harare and Bulawayo.
Several telecommunications providers have invested in upgrading infrastructure, resulting in improved internet speeds and increased coverage, though rural and remote areas still lag behind in access and affordability.
Efforts to modernise the national power grid have also gathered pace, with government and private sector initiatives targeting renewable energy projects, including solar farms and mini-hydro stations.
These projects aim to address the persistent challenge of load-shedding and intermittent electricity supply, which have historically hampered digital operations.
The drive towards renewable energy is also part of Zimbabwe’s commitment to sustainability and regional energy cooperation.
On the data infrastructure side, Zimbabwe has begun to develop local data centres, albeit at a slower rate compared to some regional peers.
These facilities are crucial for hosting domestic digital services, reducing latency, enhancing data security and supporting regulatory compliance.
The government has signalled its intent to encourage further investment through policy reforms and incentives, recognising that data sovereignty and local capacity are prerequisites for robust AI and digital services.
Skills and ongoing challenges
Additionally, partnerships between universities, the private sector, and international organisations have fostered a culture of digital skills development.
Coding academies, tech incubators and innovation hubs are equipping young Zimbabweans with the skills needed to take part in the global digital economy.
Notable examples include technology parks in Harare and innovation challenges that have drawn regional attention. Despite these advancements, challenges remain. The cost of internet access and data are still high for many Zimbabweans, and the reliability of power supply continues to be a barrier for businesses and individuals alike.
However, the momentum towards a resilient digital foundation is evident, and ongoing investments in infrastructure, energy and local talent are gradually transforming Zimbabwe’s digital landscape.
Power, the first gatekeeper
AI systems, cloud platforms and digital services are energy-hungry by design. Training models, running databases, hosting platforms and maintaining continuous online services all demand consistent power supply.
When electricity becomes intermittent, digital reliability collapses. Businesses cannot host services locally. Startups cannot guarantee uptime.
Financial systems cannot scale safely. Even remote workers selling skills abroad find themselves hostage to load-shedding timetables. In this sense, energy policy has quietly become technology policy.
Nations that dominate AI today invested first in power resilience. For Zimbabwe, renewable expansion, grid modernisation and regional energy cooperation are not just industrial ambitions, they are prerequisites for participation in the digital economy.
Connectivity, highway of modern trade
The second foundation is connectivity. Broadband is now as critical as roads and railways once were.
Digital commerce, online education, telemedicine, remote work and AI services all rely on affordable, high-speed and reliable internet. Yet in many parts of the country, bandwidth remains expensive, unstable or geographically limited.
This matters because digital opportunity is extremely sensitive to latency and cost. A young developer exporting services abroad competes with peers in Nairobi, Bangalore and Manila, all operating on cheaper, faster networks.
Connectivity, therefore, becomes a competitive advantage or a structural disadvantage. Expanding fibre networks, lowering data costs and improving last-mile access are economic interventions, not mere telecom upgrades.
Data centres, intelligence at home
Perhaps the least discussed but most strategic foundation is data hosting. At present, much of Africa’s digital traffic is processed and stored outside the continent.
When local businesses use cloud services, their data often travels abroad before returning to local screens. This increases latency, raises costs and quietly exports a valuable economic resource.
Local data centres change this equation. They keep data closer to users, improve service reliability, enhance cybersecurity control and create domestic digital employment.
More importantly, they lay the groundwork for future AI development. One cannot train national-scale AI systems without local data infrastructure. Data sovereignty is not political rhetoric, it is an engineering requirement.
Encouragingly, Zimbabwe has begun steps in this direction, but progress remains slow relative to regional peers. Strategic partnerships, clear regulatory frameworks and incentives for private investment could accelerate this critical layer of the digital stack.
From aspiration to architecture
The story of digital transformation is often told in terms of apps, coding skills and innovation labs. These are visible and inspiring. Yet real transformation is achieved when invisible systems quietly function every second of every day. The nations that succeed in AI will be those that mastered mundane reliability long before they mastered futuristic intelligence. For Zimbabwe, the opportunity remains open.The talent exists.
The ambition exists. What remains is the patient construction of infrastructure that allows ideas to scale rather than stall. The digital economy will not arrive by proclamation. It will arrive by wiring, powering and hosting the nation into readiness. Once that foundation is laid, the creativity of Zimbabwe’s people will do the rest.
Bangure is a filmmaker. He has extensive ex-perience in both print and electronic media production and management. He is a past chair-person of the National Employment Council of the Printing, Packaging and Newspaper Industry. He has considerable exposure to IT networks and Cloud technologies and is an enthusiastic scholar of artificial intelligence. — naison.bangure@hub- edutech.com
