ZimHosts wins top award

ZIMHOST.COM has been voted the best web designer company of the year for 2014 at the recent Zimbabwe Business Awards which were held in Harare.

The company said the award was testimony to its continued hard work in aligning both its vision and mission to ensure that it helps bridge the technology gap in Zimbabwe.

The award comes barely six months after the company claimed the Top SME award at the SMEs Intl Expo in Zimbabwe.

“The recognition of this award is a reflection of the continued hard work that the team is doing to ensure businesses have an online presence,” said a company spokesperson.

“The business sector in Africa is fast shifting from offline to online. Over the last few years, in Zimbabwe, we have seen both telecoms and IT companies investing heavily in infrastructure to help consumers access the internet which has become a basic need for most people.

“Zimhosts has realised this gap in the market and the need to enable business to trade online both locally and internationally through the use of e-commerce and as such we have embarked on a drive to ensure we get as many businesses online as possible to help open new markets and facilitate trade with other countries.”

Despite the economic challenges Zimbabwe presently struggles with, Zimhosts says it is keen to ensure that it plays its part to enable businesses to trade better.

In line with this vision, the company has made the cost of websites affordable to even start-up businesses and, for as little as US$50, a business can have a fully functional website.

“We value the communities we operate in and, as such, we have a mandate to ensure we educate the younger generation as well as take care of those in need,” the company said.

“Each month we help 10 families with food stuffs as well as pay school fees for some kids. We believe that these are our people and it is also our responsibility as an organisation to ensure we are able to make a difference not just to businesses but also to the under privileged in our society.”

Over the last few months the company’s social responsibility programme has taken them to areas such as Norton, Hopely and Hatclife.

“We believe in the Ubuntu concept that it’s a collective effort to raise a community. We will continue to play our part in community development and encourage all businesses to take part in this initiative as it helps better the communities we live in,” said the spokesman.
Zimbabwe’s IT industry is a fast growing market as it aligns itself to the developed countries in terms of faster and better IT solutions and infrastructure but there remains a big challenge to educate businesses on the importance of having an online presence.

More can be done by the country’s ICT ministry to ensure more awareness campaigns are conducted around the country because, having more companies trading online and opening up new markets, will help boost the economy and create more employment.