The Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) is set to begin manufacturing and assembling electronic gadgets including cell-phones and laptops by the end of this year.
This was said by HIT vice chancellor Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe at the institution’s 11th graduation ceremony.
President Emerson Mnangagwa presided over the ceremony where 447 students graduated in various disciplines.
Kanhukamwe said the university was pursuing a number of scientific innovations.
“Equipment for the project and plant setting up is now at 50 percent completion, we anticipate production to begin before the end of the year, we will be producing cell phones, laptops as well as assembling televisions,” he said.
“We want to see our products being commercialised, we want to go beyond our borders, be continental as well as global.”
Kanhukamwe said other HIT innovations including the ZUPCO tap card payment system were already bearing fruit.
“To date through tap-card over $2.4 billion has passed through the system, demonstrating that we can contribute and bring about a cashless transport system,” he said.
“Regarding the national fuel management system; measurements have been collected from all provinces, sensors have been procured and shipment is expected to arrive in the next week while software development is at an advanced stage of completion.”
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the government led initiatives to revive the health sector, Kanhukamwe said HIT was producing medical equipment.
“We have developed a critical mass of bio-medical engineers whom we trained abroad and they are now all on the ground, we are eager to contribute to the Zimbabwe health delivery system reform through the manufacturing of bio-medical equipment.
“As we venture into this area we also celebrate the accreditation by the Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education of our degree in bio-medical engineering which will enrol students at the end of October this year. This will position HIT at the heart of the health delivery system from a technology and engineering perspective. We have also developed prototypes of ventilators which have passed the functionality test and vetting and we are eager to roll out production as soon as we get funding,” he said.
He said the centre had also ventured into transformer production for various corporate bodies, farmers and some local authorities.
“Our project team is now pursuing prospects to link with the Rural Electrification Agency so that we can assist them in repairing a lot of their transformers which are currently down,” he said.-New Ziana
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