In his acceptance speech, Mnangagwa expressed confidence that he together with HIT will continue to make the institute the citadel of inventions and a strategic institution for technological skills development.
He urged HIT to further accelerate and broaden the various ongoing initiatives towards development, incubation, transfer and commercialisation of technology to leapfrog Zimbabwe s modernisation and industrialisation agenda.
Mnangagwa commended the strides that HIT is making in demystifying science, engineering and technology with some of the research outputs having been commercialised and patented, thereby contributing to Zimbabwe’s industrial and technological revolution.
Mnangagwa also commended HIT for nurturing inventions and establishment of viable start-ups, saying the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs will ensure speedy registration of Intellectual Property.
Mnangagwa noted that the University has teaching personnel with competencies that cover new generation technologies like nanotechnology, bioinformatics, big data analytics, sensor technology machine design, renewable energy and other skills and called on the institute and other universities to use such skills to advance Zimbabwe’s entry into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Turning to future developments, Mnangagwa said the university should take advantage of the designation of Harare as a Special Economic Zone to establish local and international partnerships to tap into the resources, expertise and technologies from such synergies.
Meanwhile, Mnangagwa has capped 364 graduands at the HIT during the 2018 graduation ceremony today.
This year’s graduation figure registered a 12.9 percent decrease from the 418 graduands capped last year.
However, the number of female graduands rose by 4.9 percent.
The graduands were drawn from the departments of electronic commerce, financial engineering, chemical engineering, chemical process systems engineering, electronic engineering, polymer technology and engineering information technology, computer science, information security assurance and software engineering.
In his report, the Vice Chancellor Professor Quinton Kanhukamwe outlined some of the innovations that HIT has attained in the past year, including some patents of the university.
The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Amon Murwira paid tribute to the president for the transformation that he has brought into the sector.
HIT was granted university status in 2005 through the promulgation of the Harare Institute of Technology Act Chapter 25.26.
In attendance at the ceremony were Permanent Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Fanuel Tagwira, the board chairman Dr Gibson Mandishona, diplomats and chairman of the Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe.- state media