By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
The numbers tell a compelling story about Zimbabwe’s hunger for innovation. When the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) issued a call for proposals under the inaugural AI for Impact Challenge, the response was overwhelming.
738 individuals — students, entrepreneurs, researchers, software developers and innovators from across the country — submitted project proposals.
Only 60 made the cut.
And in Nyanga this week, after an intensive six-day bootcamp, the most promising among them learned their fate: they would advance to the next phase of mentorship, testing and commercialisation, with access to up to US$80,000 in grant funding.
The AI for Impact Challenge, which ran from July 27 to August 1, 2026, represents the first major implementation programme under Zimbabwe’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2026-2030), launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in March.
The initiative is a structured, AI-focused extension of POTRAZ‘s annual Innovation Drive Challenge, designed to create a stronger pipeline from ideation to implementation.
ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera, whose ministry jointly organised the challenge with POTRAZ, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Zimbabwe Centre for High Performance Computing, said the country has already made significant progress since the strategy’s launch.
“The true measure of any strategy lies not in its launch, but in its implementation,” Minister Mavetera said at a pre-challenge breakfast meeting in Harare. “AI4I has been conceived as the implementation framework for the AI Grand Challenge envisaged under the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy”.
The challenge brought together multidisciplinary teams of software developers, designers, data scientists, policy experts and sector specialists to develop AI-powered solutions to real-world challenges. The focus areas: agriculture, health, education, financial inclusion, cybersecurity and public service delivery.
Over several days in Nyanga, the 60 selected innovators worked closely with mentors and industry experts to refine their ideas and prepare them for real-world application.
POTRAZ Director General Dr. Gift Machengete described the intensive programme as a critical step towards operationalising Zimbabwe’s AI strategy.
“This represents one of the first major national programmes designed to translate the strategy’s aspirations into practical interventions that deliver measurable impact,” he said ahead of the event.
The process was rigorous. Every submission underwent evaluation based on innovation, technical feasibility, responsible AI principles, implementation potential and sectoral relevance.
The most promising projects will now progress to the next phase of mentorship, testing and commercialisation through strategic partnerships, including with the ITU AI/Machine Learning SandboxHub.
The scale of the response — 738 submissions from across Zimbabwe — signals a growing appetite for AI-driven innovation in the country. Recent surveys show that 31 percent of Zimbabwean internet users are now using AI tools, with education and learning accounting for 91.5 percent of AI use.
But the AI for Impact Challenge is about more than numbers. “It is AI for Impact because what is important is actually the impact,” Minister Mavetera said.
The vision, as Dr. Machengete put it, is to move beyond algorithms and code, to focus on people — a nurse in Binga receiving AI-assisted clinical guidance, a teacher in Tsholotsho preparing personalised learning materials in isiNdebele, a visually impaired learner accessing every textbook through assistive technology.
For the 738 who submitted proposals — and the 60 who made it to Nyanga — the journey is only beginning. The challenge is designed to create a pipeline of practical solutions, partnerships and innovations capable of progressing towards deployment and real-world impact.
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