By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Zimbabwe’s government plans
to make Pangolin AI, its national artificial intelligence platform, fully
operational by the first quarter of 2027, as part of efforts to develop
sovereign AI infrastructure and strengthen the country’s digital transformation
agenda under Vision 2030.
Minister of Information
Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Tatenda Mavetera
announced the timeline in a statement following the POTRAZ and National
University of Science and Technology (NUST) Research and Innovation Symposium
in Bulawayo, where Deputy Minister of ICT Dingumuzi Phuti represented her and
delivered her address.
In the address, Mavetera
emphasised that AI must be rooted in Zimbabwe’s reality, including its
languages, needs and operating environment.
Pangolin AI is designed to
provide secure, locally controlled computing and data infrastructure, allowing
sensitive national data to remain within Zimbabwe rather than relying entirely
on foreign cloud servers.
The platform will aggregate
public datasets, including health records, agricultural statistics and
educational information, into a unified system. It will also use a federated
model under which sensitive departmental and ministry data remains stored locally
and can be accessed securely through privacy-preserving application programming
interfaces (APIs).
According to Mavetera, the
platform will provide local startups, developers and researchers with computing
power and standardised national data to develop homegrown AI solutions.
Potential applications include disease outbreak prediction, smart agriculture
and locally relevant educational tools.
“Because we cannot build a
truly Zimbabwean AI ecosystem on foreign infrastructure and foreign data.
Sovereignty over our data is national sovereignty,” Mavetera said.
She said Pangolin AI would
enable researchers to innovate while the government safeguards privacy and
security from the planning stage.
The minister called on
Zimbabwe’s technology ecosystem to take advantage of the platform, reaffirming
the government’s commitment to responsible AI that strengthens businesses,
improves public services and creates opportunities for Zimbabweans.
The initiative forms part of
Zimbabwe’s National AI Strategy 2026–2030, which sets out the country’s
approach to developing and deploying artificial intelligence.
“Let us build solutions that
are not just technologically advanced, but distinctly Zimbabwean,” Mavetera
said.
