A speaker during Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) ICT innovation workshop in Harare yesterday told innovators to shake off the dependency syndrome and to be able to come up with solutions for Zimbabwe.
Mr. Chiripano was speaking on behalf of the POTRAZ Director-General at the workshop meant to build capacity for innovators in developing ideas.
“We all generally believe that whenever there is a problem, somebody somewhere should come to solve that problem,” Chiripano said. “… that is a general problem that we have not just as Zimbabwe but especially all the developing countries.”
“So you as innovators, the first thing that you must do is just to un-york that, just shake off all that dependency syndrome, that idea of thinking that someone will come in to solve the problem.”
Chiripano said the circumstances that Zimbabwe is in has too many opportunities for innovation.
“Currently Zimbabwe is facing lots of problems,” Chiripano told innovators. “… to you those should not be problems, it should be resembling lots of opportunities for you to develop solutions to those problems because that’s what innovation is all about.”
“Imagine if we were in a country where everything is working perfectly well, I think it would have been difficult to innovate because then you have to look to find something that is very special.”
The speaker also said Zimbabwe’s advantage in terms of innovation is its educated people who can use education as an advantage to innovate.
The innovation workshop was done to help innovators with skills of how to apply for innovation funds by POTRAZ.
The workshop comes after only 6 out of the 188 proposals went through in March this year.
