Hospitals and clinics across Zimbabwe have been supplied with Starlink satellite internet kits under a government connectivity drive, but many cannot use them because they cannot afford the monthly subscriptions.
This was said by Kariba MP Shine Gwangwaba (CCC) during oral questions without notice in the National Assembly on Wednesday, telling lawmakers that hospitals had been given Starlink kits but were failing to subscribe and were “just keeping them.”
He asked what could be done to help hospitals raise the money needed for subscriptions.
Earlier, Health and Child Care Minister Douglas Mombeshora had told the National Assembly that more than 400 clinics had been fitted with solar power and Starlink kits, with a target of extending the network to more than 700 clinics.
In his response to Gwangwaba, Mombeshora acknowledged the funding gap and said that negotiations with the service provider were underway.
“Indeed, we have received those challenges, and we are engaging the agents to lower the subscriptions so that we can pay for all those Starlink kits that we will install,” said Mombeshora.
Chinhoyi MP Leslie Mhangwa (CCC) suggested that the subscription costs be covered through the Universal Services Fund (USF), the levy-funded mechanism already used to subsidise connectivity for schools, libraries and base stations in remote areas.
Information, Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera confirmed that the USF currently funds subscriptions mainly for digital centres and schools, and only for a year at a time.
“We also need to do the same for hospitals, which I think is worth considering,” Mavetera told MPs, adding that she will take up the matter with the Ministry of Health to explore extending USF support to hospitals, which currently fall outside the fund’s scope.
No timeline was given for when a resolution on subscription funding for the affected hospitals might be reached.
More: ZimLive
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