Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), Peya Mushelenga on Thursday officially opened the MICT Zambezi Regional Office.
The N.dollars 19 million state-of-the-art building is the eighth regional office constructed by that ministry, as part of government’s commitment to decentralise services to the regions and to enhance service delivery to communities countrywide.
The office will, among others, provide videography services, access to internet services, use of digital and broadcasting platforms, as well as a recording studio that allows for local artists to record music and related items.
“This office will also serve to enhance e-governance in rural areas, as we have the rural ICT centres at Sachona and Ibbu villages in this region. It is my wish that more centres will be established in this region and this will be possible when we have the public and private sector complementing each other in the establishment and sustenance of rural ICT centres,” Mushelenga said.
He noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 has brought new dimensions in information technology, which is now used frequently and on a large scale, adding that the evolution of record management systems requires modern technology as information is migrated from paper-based documents and records into digital format.
“The construction of this infrastructure is therefore a step in the right direction for the creation, transmission and storage of knowledge and information. The storage of information is important for reference in the future by both policy makers, policy implementers and researchers,” he said.
Mushelenga also highlighted that the Zambezi Region is prominently situated in that it borders Cuando Cubango Province of Angola on the north-west, the Western Province of Zambia on the north and the North-West District of Botswana on the east, which gives the region a great opportunity to form bilateral relations based on information sharing, managing and disseminating information with the sister regions across the borders.
“I would therefore like to urge the staff of MICT to ensure that they are committed to service delivery. Information should be disseminated to the public on time and a culture of responsiveness to public queries should be maintained,” he said.
The Namibia Press Agency
