By JAMES KUNDA –

. Lungu

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has pledged to reposition Zambia by transforming the country into an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hub in Africa. Centre of Excellence for e-Government and ICT (CEEGICT) national coordinator Felix Phiri said it was the President’s expectation that all Government services would in the next five years be offered online. This will help provide effective public service delivery, which is expected to be achieved in the next one year. “His Excellency is on firm ground and believes that in order to stimulate socio-economic growth, ICT will play a pivotal role, hence the ‘Smart Zambia’ vision. “I interpret ‘Smart Zambia’ to be about how the Government uses ICT to deliver better services, create jobs and transform the Zambian society and economy in a constantly changing environment,” Dr Phiri said. He said this in Lusaka yesterday when he opened a workshop for ICT staff in the public service on putting into operation the ‘Smart Zambia’ vision which is aimed at transforming the country into a knowledge-based nation by 2064. Dr Phiri said CEEGICT, which President Lungu launched last year and has since been placed under his office, was the vehicle which would be used to spearhead the implementation of the ‘Smart Zambia’ vision. He said the Government had upscaled the construction of roads and ICT infrastructure to connect every part of the country while focusing on modernising the agriculture sector to improve the productivity of farmers.