Tenants show up and operate, rather than keeping the lights on.
An 800-acre stretch of land near Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare sits at the center of the most ambitious industrial bet Zimbabwe has seen in a generation. Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of Econet Wireless, has announced plans to build Econet Tech City — a fully managed, self-contained smart industrial hub designed to pull global companies and their capital into the Zimbabwean economy.
The project carries a $1 billion price tag and a target that is hard to ignore: more than 300 companies operating on the site, generating upward of 20,000 jobs. Masiyiwa has framed the development not as a traditional industrial park but as something closer to a city grafted onto a city — one that handles the infrastructure headaches so that tenants never have to.
That pitch is deliberate. Masiyiwa has been direct about what sophisticated investors actually want when they consider planting operations in Africa: they want the lights to stay on, the internet to be fast, the water to run, and the paperwork to move. Econet Tech City is designed around that checklist. The hub will come pre-loaded with reliable power, fibre and satellite connectivity, water supply, waste management, transport links, and streamlined regulatory processes. Security will be layered — perimeter walls, round-the-clock guards, CCTV, and drone surveillance.
The vehicle driving the project is Econet InfraCo, which was recently listed on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange. The company will not simply build the infrastructure and hand over the keys; it will manage daily operations for every tenant on the site. That model draws inspiration from developments Masiyiwa has studied across Africa and Asia, with Lagos's Eko Atlantic cited as a particular reference point.
Sustainability is baked into the design rather than bolted on afterward. A 100-megawatt solar plant will power the complex, and a nearby water stream will support supply needs. Econet also plans to build a 10-megawatt data centre within the hub, expanding on the 5-megawatt facility it already operates in Harare. Engineers and architects are already at work on the facility's design, and solar panels for the first construction phase are reportedly on their way.
The hub will include a shopping mall and healthcare facilities — the amenities that make a long working day livable — though residential housing and office complexes are not part of the initial blueprint. The phrase Masiyiwa has used is a "city within a city," and the intention is that the site functions as a self-sustaining environment rather than a dependency on Harare's existing, often strained, infrastructure.
Masiyiwa has been equally clear about what he is not asking for. He told the Zimbabwean government he wants no exclusive advantages for Econet — no special carve-outs that would give the company an unfair edge. What he does want is a policy environment with incentives broad enough to attract other developers to build similar hubs elsewhere in Zimbabwe and across the continent. The announcement has already drawn interest from both local and international companies, though no tenants have been formally named.
The competitive framing is pointed. Masiyiwa has named Cape Town, Nairobi, and Kigali as the cities Harare must now measure itself against in the race for high-tech investment. Africa's youth population is growing faster than its formal job market, and he has argued that industrial hubs at this scale are one of the few mechanisms capable of closing that gap at speed.
The timeline is conditional. Masiyiwa believes the site could be substantially complete within two years if the government moves quickly on supportive incentives. Full operations, rolled out in phases, could take up to five years. That window is both an opportunity and a test — of political will in Harare, of investor confidence in Zimbabwe, and of whether a single ambitious project can shift the story a country tells about itself.
Notable Quotes
The goal is to create a self-sustaining city within a city, with essential services already in place so businesses can focus entirely on operations.— Strive Masiyiwa, founder of Econet Wireless (paraphrased)
Africa's growing youth population requires immediate job creation, and Zimbabwe must compete with Cape Town, Nairobi, and Kigali to secure global investment.— Strive Masiyiwa (paraphrased)
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What makes this different from the industrial parks Zimbabwe has tried before?
The management model, mostly. Econet InfraCo isn't just laying roads and walking away — it's running the site day to day. Power, water, security, connectivity. Tenants show up and operate, rather than spending half their energy keeping the lights on.
Why does that matter so much to investors?
Because infrastructure failure is the tax that never shows up in a prospectus. If you're a manufacturer deciding between Harare and Nairobi, and Nairobi guarantees uptime while Harare asks you to figure it out yourself, the choice isn't really about Zimbabwe's potential — it's about risk.
The 100-megawatt solar plant is a striking detail. Is that realistic for a single industrial site?
It's large, but it's not outlandish for a hub designed to host 300 companies. The more interesting signal is that Econet isn't waiting for the national grid to improve — they're building around it entirely.
Masiyiwa said he doesn't want exclusive government benefits. Why make that point publicly?
It's a credibility move. Zimbabwe has a history of politically connected projects that crowd out competition. By saying upfront that he wants no special treatment, he's trying to reframe this as a national infrastructure play rather than a business favor.
The five-year timeline feels long. What's the risk that this stalls?
Government incentives are the stated condition. If the policy environment doesn't shift, the two-year construction target slips, and so does everything downstream. The interest from companies is real, but interest doesn't sign leases.
He mentioned Cape Town, Nairobi, Kigali. Is Harare actually in that conversation?
Not yet, honestly. But that's the argument he's making — that it could be, and that the window to compete is closing as those cities consolidate their advantages. The hub is partly an economic project and partly a reputational one.