Harnessing the Potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Agribusiness for Youth Employment: Lessons from Bikita, Zimbabwe

Agribusiness has become a key strategy to achieve socio-economic transformation and has been promoted by both governments and development partners in recent years. Yet, there is little evidence on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agribusiness in order to create employment for the youth, especially in rural areas. Conventional employment creation strategies by governments for the youth are not yielding the much-anticipated results, and some innovative ways of determined actions are imperative to create youth employment, achieve socio-economic transformation and ultimately realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research primarily follows a qualitative approach to collect data to understand the potential use of ICTs in agribusiness for youth employment in Bikita. The results reveal that, notwithstanding the efforts by the Government of Zimbabwe in promoting the use of ICTs in agribusiness, rural youths are confronted by a horde of challenges including lack of ICT skills and knowledge, lack of financial support for business start-ups and poor infrastructure to support the use of ICTs. The chapter recommends a cohesive approach that factors capacity development and skill upgrading for the youths, ensures strong legal and vibrant institutional frameworks that support use of ICTs, provides financial support for business start-ups for the youths and expands ICT infrastructure to remote areas of the country.