Online Reporter
Elliot Ziwira
Igava Business Centre in Marondera, Mashonaland East Province, is today alive with colour, innovation and youthful optimism as more than 30 000 young Zimbabweans gather to commemorate National Youth Day, a celebration that places young people at the heart of national development.
This year’s theme, “Youth Agenda for Transformation”, recognises the significance of youths in securing a brighter future for the greater good.
Celebrated annually on February 21, the day honours the significance of youths in nation-building and encourages them to adopt good leadership values.
This national holiday was gazetted and proclaimed by the Government in 2017 to pay tribute to the nation’s youths. The day is set aside to increase awareness and commitment to investing in youths to accelerate their empowerment and development.
Past events have been held in different provinces, including Harare Metropolitan Province in 2022, Matabeleland North Province in 2023, Masvingo Province in 2024 and Bulawayo Metropolitan Province in 2025.
Although the future belongs to youths as a key constituency, they should draw inspiration from the past in their interpretation and interaction with the present. For them to determine where they are going, they should know where they are coming from and on whose sod their feet rest.
Collective memory embodied in the struggle for independence starting from the First Chimurenga needs to find a basis in young people’s endeavours, as they are the future, lest they tumble into the quagmire of neo-colonialism and its local enablers.
Their young minds should be liberated both from themselves and the many substances they abuse as well as opportunistic players that prey on their vulnerability.
Young people should be empowered to go beyond history as a silent past, but as a source of agency that moves and speaks to the present and future. Since they are a key demographic, it should be inculcated in them from an early age that the nation comes before the individual.
As has been observed through autochthon wisdom, a man cannot be expected to love his country, when as a child, he was never taught to love his village and fellow residents.
Therefore, youths should be empowered both ideologically and socio-economically.
Officiating at the event, as he does today, President Mnangagwa has consistently positioned youth empowerment as a strategic pillar of the Second Republic’s transformation agenda.
“Hard honest work pays, while focus, discipline and professionalism in all business endeavours are indispensable values for the success and prosperity of our nation.
“This culture should be preached and entrenched among you, our young people,” President Mnangagwa said at the launch of the Presidential Youth Empowerment Revolving Fund in 2025.
His words remain powerful today as thousands of youths, including innovators, farmers, miners, students and entrepreneurs, fill Igava Business Centre, embodying that ethic of discipline and productivity.
From education to industrialisation
The journey of structured youth empowerment under the Second Republic traces back to deliberate reforms in higher education.
In 2018, the Government set aside more than US$5 million to establish technology and innovation hubs at six State universities, transforming institutions from certificate-awarding entities into engines of industrialisation.
The University of Zimbabwe, National University of Science and Technology, Harare Institute of Technology, Midlands State University, Chinhoyi University of Technology and the Zimbabwe National Defence University became beneficiaries of this industrial thrust.
Innovation hubs were designed to test ideas, develop prototypes and patent products, ensuring that young graduates do not merely seek employment, but create industries. This paradigm shift dovetails with President Mnangagwa’s insistence that youth-led enterprises must be globally competitive.
“Innovation, the use of emerging technologies and deployment of ICTs (information communication technologies) to create new product lines, penetrate value chains and global markets are now essential ingredients to realise business success. I expect youth-led businesses to be up to the challenge,” the President said.
Today in Marondera, exhibition stands reflect that call, showcasing agro-processing machinery, digital platforms and mining innovations born from youthful ingenuity.
Youth in agriculture: Productivity with purpose
Youth empowerment has also been anchored in agriculture. In 2022, President Mnangagwa launched the Midlands Youth Livestock Hub in Kwekwe, distributing 600 heifers to 600 youths as part of the Livestock Growth Plan.
The initiative sought to boost the national herd and drive Zimbabwe towards Vision 2030, while instilling life skills and creating sustainable income streams for young farmers. President Mnangagwa has repeatedly emphasised accountability in empowerment programmes.
“Transparency and integrity in administering your projects is of uttermost importance, do not be found wanting,” he urged beneficiaries of youth schemes.
Such guidance highlights that empowerment is not entitlement but tilts towards responsibility.
Capital for young ambition
In March 2025, the President further entrenched youth empowerment through the US$2 million Presidential Youth Empowerment Revolving Fund and the US$5 million Presidential Youth Mining Equipment Scheme.
Distributed across the country’s 10 provinces, the Fund operates on a sustainability model, requiring repayment to allow more youths to benefit. “I urge you to continue with proactive planning and the promotion of results and benchmarks that will propel the overall prosperity of our country,” President Mnangagwa said at the launch.
The Mining Equipment Scheme, meanwhile, supports young artisanal miners with mechanisation, enabling them to increase productivity and formalise operations, linking youth participation directly to national economic growth.
Today’s National Youth Day commemorations bring together beneficiaries of these schemes, many itching to share testimonies of transformed livelihoods.
A national roadmap
The consolidation of youth initiatives gained further momentum in October 2025 with the launch of the National Youth Empowerment Strategy at the Exhibition Park in Harare.
The strategy provides a coordinated roadmap for youth development, aligning programmes under the Second Republic’s Heritage-Based Education 5.0 philosophy.
President Mnangagwa has been unequivocal about the role of youths in Zimbabwe’s future.
“The youth-owned businesses of Zimbabwe should situate themselves beyond our own country — into the SADC region, continent and globally. Innovation and competitiveness must define you,” he said.
Youths as partners in development
Today’s gathering at Igava Business Centre demonstrates a whole-of-Government approach, with ministries, departments and agencies exhibiting opportunities in vocational training, agriculture, mining, information communication technology and entrepreneurship.
National Youth Day, therefore, transcends celebration as it affirms a covenant between the Government and young citizens that their energy, creativity and discipline are indispensable to national transformation. Zimbabwe’s demographic dividend, if properly harnessed, becomes a development dividend.
As President Mnangagwa addresses a joyous citizenry today, the symbolism is unmistakable. It recognises that the path to an upper-middle-income economy by 2030 runs through the hands of its young people.
From university innovation hubs to livestock schemes, revolving funds and mining support, the architecture of empowerment is visible.
In Marondera, amid the rhythm of drums and the hum of enterprise, Zimbabwe’s young people stand not as spectators but as architects of Vision 2030. Empowered, accountable and productive.
The future is, indeed, youthful and it is being built today, initiative after initiative.
