21/05/2026
๐๐ถ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐๐ต
By Mercy C. Makuwatsine
BAKU, Azerbaijan: The City of Harare is shifting its strategy from a reliance on traditional foreign aid to a commercial investment model, aiming to transform Zimbabwe's capital into a hub for bankable, politically insulated infrastructure projects.
Speaking today at the India pavilion on the sidelines of the United Nations Regional Commissions meetings in Baku, Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume declared that the city is actively rewriting the narrative on how African municipalities engage with global capital.
"Historically, international engagements with African municipalities have been viewed through the lens of traditional development aid, grants, or sovereign debtโa model which is limited, slow, and unsustainable," Mayor Mafume stated.
"The City of Harare has changed the narrative... by connecting the city with investors and structured bankable projects."
This new narrative was forged out of an intensive collaboration in December 2025. Harare and UNECA officials had sat down to map out five of the cityโs most critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Rather than trying to fix everything at once with stretched municipal funds, they ran the data through a rigorous feasibility and prioritization matrix.
Together with local stakeholders, they whittled the list down to three high-yield, bankable project ideas designed to simultaneously drive investor returns and economically empower the city's residents.
With UNECAโs technical assistance, those ideas were now being polished into formal, market-ready investment proposals.
At the very top of the priority list was the modernization of the Highfield Lusaka Market, a bustling economic hub that Mayor Mafume described not as a shadow economy in need of charity, but as a high-liquidity economic engine.
The SME sector already drives a large percentage of Harareโs GDP and employs the majority of its urban workforce, yet it has long lacked modern infrastructure.
The cityโs plan is to transform the site into a safe, sophisticated market space equipped with smart solar utilities and digitized fee collection systems.
This creates a secure, ring-fenced revenue stream for investors while delivering a massive, measurable Environmental, Social and Governance impact for the community.
The second project entails the transformation of the Simon Muzenda Bus Terminus, formerly known as the 4th Street rank. For years, the terminus had suffered from chronic underinvestment, crippling gridlock, and unregulated touting networks that actively drained municipal revenue and suppressed productivity in the Central Business District.
Instead of just repaving the asphalt, Harare is restructuring the transport hub into a high-yield Transit-Oriented Development asset class.
The upgraded multi-level hub will weave secure digital ticketing and prime advertising real estate together with modern retail bays, turning a logistical headache into a premium commercial asset.
The final project is along the Simon Mazorodze transit artery at the proposed Boka localized mixed-use light industrial park.
Designed specifically to scale up the city's informal manufacturers, the park will provide SMEs with access to centralized specialized machinery, secure warehousing, and, crucially, steady industrial power grids.
By clustering these businesses together, the city aims to drastically lower overhead costs for individual entrepreneurs, accelerating their transition from backyard workshops into competitive, export-ready manufacturing entities.
As Mayor Mafume concluded his presentation in Baku, the message to the international delegates was unmistakable.
Harare was moving forward with a clear, data-driven strategy, proving that municipal development does not have to rely on traditional aid when it can be powered by smart, self-sustaining global capital.
