Namibia launches innovation center to spur digital economy

WINDHOEK, Oct. 14  — An innovation center, the result of a partnership between the Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), Namibia’s largest mobile service provider, and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), opened here Thursday as the southern African country endeavors to develop an inclusive digital economy.
The center, the first of its kind in Namibia, is keen on improving competitiveness through trans-disciplinary research and the transfer of specialized knowledge and technology and aims to facilitate a functional technologically inspired ecosystem for the university, community, industries, development partners, and entrepreneurs.
The center is located at NUST and will be open to NUST students and industry experts, serving as a hub where industry meets academia.
NUST Vice-Chancellor Erold Naomab said the center, a hub for testing, building, and showcasing new technologies, aims to ensure that technological and scientific developments are available to a wider audience.
MTC Managing Director Licky Erasmus indicated the hub has the possibility of becoming a national center of engaged excellence that will explore and fuse innovation with the transformative power of technology.
“This is an innovation hub where industry experts and academics will be appreciating and leveraging synergies to transform innovative ideas and concepts to life,” he said.  (Xinhua)