Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) vice chancellor Quinton Kanhukamwe says Zimbabwe could be losing billions of dollars in undeclared minerals.
Kanhukamwe made these remarks during the 2nd Data Controller License Handover Ceremony and 6th Data Protection Officer Certification held jointly with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz) last Friday.
HIT was granted university status in 2005.
“(Our) mandate is to develop, incubate, transfer and commercialize technology for the rapid industrialization of this country. The programs we offer and the students we teach are a means to an end.
“We have taken various lithium ores throughout the country, characterized them, and reached a stage where at laboratory level we have developed a lithium battery. This is how it should be.
“We have a ticking time bomb of youth unemployment in the entire region. I think we need to lock down resources within our region, deny the export of raw materials, and ensure that anything that goes out is beneficiated. Can you imagine the amount of employment that will be generated?” Kamhukamwe said.
“I have a team that has been characterizing the amount of ores that have been heaped in various areas in the country, including lithium ores and what we have discovered in those ores is that the lithium ore in them is a minute percentage of the rare earth minerals that are in the heaps of those ores.
“And quantifying from the statistics that we have been gathering.. We are losing in billions undeclared minerals outside the lithium going (out of) the country. And can you imagine what that could do for us as a country,” he added.
Kanhukamwe said HIT had partnered Potraz to promote the shared value of advancing innovation.
Meanwhile, Potraz director general Gift Machengete said Zimbabwe was committed to international best practice, ethical digital transformation, and safeguarding the rights of its citizens in a data-driven world.
“We are alive to the fact that the data protection mandate is not a simple one; it requires highly skilled and competent people to drive it. That is why we have expanded our structure by increasing the number of officers from 14 to 25.
“We have also continued to upskill these officers in AI, cybersecurity, digital forensic analysis, and compliance assessment. Potraz has strengthened its data protection function with both manpower and the relevant tools to effectively regulate data protection,” Machengete said.
“Whilst we have licensed 831 Controllers, we are aware of the over 3,000 non-compliant Controllers whom we shall bring into the compliance fold either by persuasion or through sanction.”
