Zimbabwe has opened its first Artificial Intelligence, Digital and Innovation Hub at Nyamuroro Vocational Training Centre in Gokwe North, moving AI and coding training out of the cities and into rural areas.
The hub is a partnership between the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Uncommon.org. It will give young people access to computers, digital skills training, artificial intelligence, coding and innovation opportunities.
The Ministry of Information, Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services supplied 20 laptops for the facility. Kudakwashe Muzenda, Director in the Minister’s Office, who represented the Ministry of Information, Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, said: “Connectivity opens the door. Skills enable people to walk through it”.
He urged the hub to build practical digital solutions for farmers, small businesses, schools and other community needs. He also called on it to link rural learners to national programmes, including the 1.5 Million Coders Programme and the CYBERUS cybersecurity programme.
The hub builds on the Presidential Internet Scheme, introduced at Nyamuroro High School in April 2025. The scheme aims to extend broadband to all 2,400 administrative wards and improve access to digital services in underserved communities. The Gokwe North hub is the skills layer on top of that infrastructure.
Deputy Minister Kudakwashe Mupanhanga for Minister of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training, represented Min Tinoda Machakaire. He described the facility as the ministry’s first AI Digital Innovation Hub in a rural area. Its location reflects the need for digital transformation to reach beyond urban centres.
The hub has already enrolled 52 young people from Gokwe North, who have started digital skills training.
“The launch is more than the opening of a training facility. It opens the gateway through which young people in rural Zimbabwe can access digital skills, artificial intelligence, coding, innovation, and the opportunities of the digital economy,” Kudakwashe Mupanhanga said.
The launch addresses a known gap. Zimbabwe’s connectivity rollout has been ahead of the skills needed to use it. Rural communities can now get online in more places, but a connection does not create a developer, a data analyst, or a digital entrepreneur.
