Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. EMPLOYERS Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) executive director Nester Mukwehwa says the country’s challenging environment and policy constraints are slowing down the penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) in business transformation.
In Zimbabwe, the advent of AI is slowly creeping into the corporate space, which is only being hampered by the country’s poor digital infrastructure.
Speaking to NewsDay Business on the sidelines of Emcoz’s 2025 conference held last Thursday, under the theme, Negotiating Resilient Collective Bargaining Agreements, Mukwehwa highlighted the challenges that were slowing down AI adoption.
“Currently, our infrastructure is bad and this has some effects on the adoption of AI,” she said.
“We also have unreliable electricity, which hinders consistent AI system use, which is impeded by the high cost of data, low or poor network penetration in rural areas, limited skills in AI, and the high cost in the implementation of implementing technologies.
“These are some of the challenges faced in adopting AI in business in the country.”
She also cited economic, infrastructural and policy constraints.
Zimbabwe suffers from a skills gap, with a shortage of AI and data science professionals.
“Brain drain has a huge impact in every sector as skilled professionals often migrate to countries with better opportunities,” Mukwehwa said.
“Importing AI-related equipment is challenging due to foreign currency shortages and customs regulations.”
There are reports that the government has drafted a National AI policy framework, although it has not been made public.
Mukwehwa said the absence of data privacy was a concern as the country had not implemented a policy on AI.
“There is no national AI policy. The government lacks a clear framework to guide AI development and use,” she said.
“We also have limited support or minimal investment in innovation hubs focused on AI, and of course, this has an impact on the development and improvement of AI in the country. Data privacy concerns are huge; the absence of comprehensive data protection laws raises ethical and operational concerns.”
Mukwehwa said Zimbabwe’s use of AI helped fintech businesses by detecting fraud, creating credit scoring, and helping mobile banking services.
However, critical to AI usage is the need for the country to have data centres that can handle the capacity of this new technology, something the country lacks.
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