In a dusty alley in Harare, inside a former warehouse converted into a tech hub, young people tap furiously at their keyboards. The air is charged with electricity, optimism, and a fierce ambition: to reinvent Zimbabwe. Far from the clichés of a country in crisis, a new generation of innovators is emerging, driven by creative energy and an unwavering faith in the potential of the digital world.
An unexpected technological awakening
For several years now, Zimbabwe has been experiencing a quiet but powerful surge in innovation. Despite a difficult economic context, the country is witnessing the birth of start-ups, idea labs, and incubators at a surprising pace.
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“When you have nothing, you’re forced to invent,” says Tendai Moyo, a 27-year-old software engineer and co-founder of ShashaPay, a local mobile payment application. “We can’t wait for Silicon Valley to save us. So we create our own solutions, for our own problems.”
According to the Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analysis and Research Unit (ZEPARU), the number of registered tech start-ups in the country doubled between 2019 and 2023. This growth is driven by an ultra-connected youth — more than 60% of Zimbabweans are under 25 — and an Internet penetration rate that now exceeds 65% in urban areas.
Innovation hubs shaking up the status quo
In Harare, Bulawayo, and Mutare, coworking and incubation spaces are springing up, often at the initiative of civil society or the diaspora returning home. Impact Hub Harare, Moto Republik, and TechVillage have become epicenters of creativity.
“We come here to learn, but above all to dream together,” explains Rutendo Chikukwa, UX designer at AfroSoft. “Before, we thought innovation was for others. Today, we believe in it.”
These hybrid spaces offer mentoring, training, high-speed Internet access, and sometimes even funding. They also host innovation competitions, hackathons, and workshops on artificial intelligence, blockchain, and smart agriculture.
In 2022, ZimHack, a national hackathon, brought together more than 1,200 participants from across the country. The winning project: a low-cost telemedicine application designed for isolated rural areas.
Local solutions for local challenges
What sets the Zimbabwean ecosystem apart is its ability to address specific problems. Here, there are no superfluous gadgets, only concrete tools to improve daily life.
EcoFarmer, for example, allows smallholder farmers to access weather forecasts by SMS, agronomic advice, and crop micro-insurance. The application has already attracted more than 800,000 users.
Another example: VaxiMate, a platform developed by two students from the University of Zimbabwe, which monitors the cold chain for vaccines in remote areas. “We lost a nephew because of an ineffective vaccine. That pushed us to find a solution,” confides Tapiwa Ncube, one of the co-founders.
These innovations are often frugal, designed with limited resources but great ingenuity. They rely on accessible technologies — SMS, USSD, low-cost Android — to reach the most vulnerable populations.
A diaspora returning with ideas
Long gone in search of what the country could not offer, part of the Zimbabwean diaspora is now returning, bringing valuable skills and networks with them.
“I came back from London in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic,” recounts Simba Dube, a former consultant at Deloitte and now founder of ZimAI, a start-up specializing in voice recognition in local languages. “It was the right time. The country is hungry for renewal.”
This return is sometimes accompanied by investment. The Diaspora Angels Zimbabwe fund, launched in 2021, has already funded 15 start-ups to the tune of 1.2 million dollars. The goal: to build a bridge between external expertise and local talent.
“We’re not here to save the country, but to build alongside those who stayed,” insists Nyasha Tembo, an investor based in Toronto. “Zimbabwe has everything it takes to become a regional tech hub.”
Obstacles that are still very real
But things are not straightforward. The economic environment remains unstable, with high inflation and a fragile national currency. Access to funding remains difficult for young entrepreneurs, and regulation struggles to keep pace with innovation.
“It often takes us six months to register a company,” laments Tinashe Mlambo, founder of ZimRide, a carpooling application. “And banks refuse to lend to us without unrealistic guarantees.”
The lack of technical training is also a barrier. While universities produce brilliant graduates, few are prepared for the demands of the entrepreneurial world. Practical training, internships, and partnerships with businesses are still too rare.
Finally, frequent power cuts and uneven Internet connection quality slow the development of certain initiatives, particularly in rural areas.
A future yet to be written
Despite the challenges, Zimbabwe’s innovation ecosystem is moving forward, driven by a contagious energy. Young people, women, engineers, and artists all seem driven by the same desire: to reinvent their future, in their own way.
“We don’t want to copy Silicon Valley,” says Fungai Mapfumo, a freelance developer. “We want to create something that reflects who we are. An African, Zimbabwean, human innovation.”
The government is beginning to grasp the scale of the phenomenon. In 2023, it launched the National Innovation Fund, endowed with 10 million dollars, to support high-social-impact technology projects. A drop in the ocean, certainly, but an encouraging signal.
What if Zimbabwe, against all odds, were to become one of the most surprising innovation laboratories in southern Africa?
