Following Zimbabwe’s National Media Day at Expo 2020 Dubai, several international investor companies have expressed their interest in working with Zimbabwe on the completion of its digitisation programme. The abovementioned statement is according to Monica Mutsvangwa, the Minister for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services in Zimbabwe.
The Honourable Minister shared the state of progress following her meeting with Rohde & Schwarz representatives from the German-headquartered firm which manufactures transmitters. Minister Mutsvangwa also mentioned that there were more potential investors making enquiries with an aim to take up programme progress opportunities.
“As a result of our media day here at Expo 2020 Dubai, we have generated interest from several investors who are interested in discussions about transmitters,” Minister said.
“Rohde & Schwarz is an established company and has access to assist Zimbabwe to complete its digitisation programme. At this stage, there are only 18 out of 48 sites which have gone fully digitised, leaving 30 more sites to acquire our digitisation goals.”
“The investor discussions will now be handed over to our technical people from the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) and Transmedia to engage with the prospective investors in order to deepen the engagements and find ways to structure the financing.”
Zimbabwe still seeks other investments in the media sector, which include supplying power to transmitter sites.
One of the Rohde & Schwarz representatives, Ms Chrabie, said their company has close to a century’s worth of experience in supplying cutting edge technologies to the world. Chrabie said that Rohde & Schwarz would like to explore ways that the organisation can support Zimbabwe’s transmitter project.
Zimbabwe has since indicated that it will welcome proposals from investors interested in applying for radio and TV licences. These investors will own 10 per cent after the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act revision.
