The Problems We Have in Zimbabwe — And What We Can Build to Solve Them

# The Problems We Have in Zimbabwe — And What We Can Build to Solve Them Zimbabwe is a country with enormous potential. It has natural resources, talented people, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, an educated population and a position that gives it access to markets across Southern Africa. But potential alone does not build an economy. People do. And more importantly, **people who are willing to identify problems, understand them deeply and build practical solutions**. At Mahachi Desmond Private Limited, this is one of the ways we look at Zimbabwe. We don't look at a problem simply as something to complain about. We ask: **Can this be engineered differently?** **Can technology make this easier?** **Can a business model solve part of the problem?** **Can we build infrastructure around it?** **Can something designed in Zimbabwe eventually work across Africa?** These are the questions behind the products and ideas we are building. --- ## Zimbabwe's Problems Are Bigger Than One Industry The challenges facing Zimbabwe are interconnected. Electricity affects businesses. Transport affects trade. Water affects agriculture and communities. Access to finance affects entrepreneurship. Education affects the quality of the workforce. Digital infrastructure affects almost every modern business. When one part of the system struggles, the effects can spread throughout the economy. The World Bank's latest Zimbabwe Growth and Jobs Report makes a similar point from an economic perspective. It identifies foundational infrastructure — particularly power, transport and irrigation — alongside private investment and a stronger business environment as important areas for Zimbabwe's future growth. That means solving Zimbabwe's problems cannot simply be about fixing one thing at a time. We need to think in **systems**. --- ## 1. Reliable Electricity Electricity is one of the clearest examples. A business cannot operate efficiently when its machines, computers, refrigeration systems or communications infrastructure cannot reliably depend on electricity. A farmer cannot depend on irrigation if the energy required to operate the system is unreliable. A manufacturer cannot maximise production when power interruptions repeatedly disrupt operations. The World Bank estimates that electricity shortages and related inefficiencies cost Zimbabwe about **6.1% of GDP annually**. It also highlights the need for investment in areas including solar generation and grid expansion. This is not only an energy-policy problem. It is an **engineering problem**. There are opportunities to develop better energy systems, solar solutions, storage technologies, monitoring systems, automation and more efficient ways of using available power. --- ## 2. Jobs and Productive Work Zimbabwe also faces a major challenge around employment and productivity. The latest World Bank assessment says around **80% of Zimbabwean workers are in the informal sector**, with many people working in relatively low-productivity activities. The report argues that Zimbabwe needs stronger productive sectors and more opportunities for formal, higher-value employment. This raises an important question: **How do we create more than jobs?** How do we create industries? How do we create businesses that require engineers, software developers, technicians, designers, logistics specialists, educators, researchers, marketers and entrepreneurs? Technology can help create entirely new categories of work. Manufacturing can create supply chains. Digital platforms can connect buyers and sellers. Education technology can expand access to skills. Agricultural technology can increase productivity. Fintech can make financial services easier to access. The objective should not simply be to find another way for people to earn a living. It should be to build an economy that **creates productive opportunities at scale**. --- ## 3. Moving Goods Around Zimbabwe Zimbabwe has producers. It has farmers. It has manufacturers. It has retailers. It has customers. But having all of these things is not enough. They need to be connected. A product sitting in one province is not particularly useful to a customer in another province if the process of finding, purchasing and receiving that product is difficult or inefficient. This is where **e-commerce, logistics and digital infrastructure** become important. Technology can connect the marketplace. Engineering can improve the physical systems behind it. Logistics can move the product. Together, these systems can turn geographical distance into something much less restrictive. --- ## 4. Agriculture Needs More Than Production Agriculture is another area where Zimbabwe has enormous potential. But producing food is only one part of the equation. There is also irrigation. Storage. Processing. Transportation. Market access. Pricing. Distribution. Cold-chain infrastructure. Technology can connect many of these pieces. And electricity matters here too. The World Bank notes that unreliable electricity affects agriculture and agro-processing through impacts on irrigation, cold storage and related infrastructure. This is exactly why we believe technology and engineering need to be viewed together. A software platform alone cannot solve an agricultural supply-chain problem. A machine alone cannot solve a market-access problem. But **connected systems can**. --- # Technology Is Not the Goal. Solving Problems Is. There is a tendency to talk about technology as though technology itself is the answer. It isn't. A mobile application is not automatically useful because it is an application. Artificial intelligence is not automatically valuable because it is AI. A machine is not automatically valuable because it is sophisticated. The real question is: > **What problem does it solve?** That is how we approach technology. We are interested in **practical technology**. Technology that connects people. Technology that reduces friction. Technology that improves access. Technology that makes existing systems more efficient. Technology that can eventually become infrastructure. And this is where engineering becomes particularly important. --- # Engineering a Better Future Engineering is ultimately about taking an understanding of the physical or technical world and using it to create something that works. That could mean electrical systems. Mechanical systems. Software. Robotics. Automation. Energy systems. Manufacturing. Transportation. Communication. Or a combination of all of them. Modern problems increasingly cross these boundaries. A future agricultural system might combine sensors, electronics, software, artificial intelligence, mechanical equipment, renewable energy and logistics. A modern education system might combine software, telecommunications, digital content and data. A modern financial system might combine payment infrastructure, software, identity systems and financial networks. This is why we don't want to think about technology in isolated categories. **Computer science, engineering, business and infrastructure can work together.** --- # So What Is Mahachi Desmond Building? This is where the discussion becomes personal for us. At **Mahachi Desmond Private Limited**, we are not claiming to have solved Zimbabwe's biggest problems. We are building toward solutions. Some are digital. Some involve commerce. Some involve education. Some involve connecting Zimbabwe with the wider world. And each one starts with a problem. ### 7 Bucks **7 Bucks** is built around a very practical problem: connecting people across borders with the financial systems they already use. The idea is to make it easier for people, particularly Zimbabweans living abroad, to send money into Zimbabwean mobile-money ecosystems. Instead of treating international payments and local mobile wallets as completely separate worlds, the concept is to connect them. That is a technology problem. It is also a financial-infrastructure problem. And it is a problem that affects real people. --- ### MDB2C **MDB2C** approaches another problem: how to make it easier to buy and sell products across Zimbabwe. The concept is an e-commerce platform connecting buyers and sellers across provinces, with logistics and delivery forming an important part of the system. Because e-commerce is not simply about putting products on a website. You need: **Seller → Platform → Buyer → Payment → Logistics → Delivery** Every link matters. That is why we see MDB2C as more than an online shop. It is an attempt to build part of the infrastructure required for **interprovincial digital commerce**. --- ### Global Rail Then there is **Global Rail**. The idea begins with another question: **How do we connect Zimbabwean food and products with Zimbabweans and other customers around the world?** The Zimbabwean diaspora represents a huge connection between Zimbabwe and the rest of the world. Global Rail is being developed around that connection, particularly around making Zimbabwean food and products accessible to people outside the country. That means thinking about supply chains, sourcing, pricing, logistics and international access. Again, the problem is bigger than an app. It is a **system**. --- ### MDA & PreYuni Education is another major part of the picture. **MDA & PreYuni** is being developed around an online education framework covering learning from primary through tertiary levels. Education is infrastructure too. A country cannot build sophisticated industries without people who have the knowledge and skills to operate, maintain and improve those industries. Digital education can help make learning more accessible, structured and scalable. And eventually, the same people who learn through these systems can become the engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs, technicians and researchers who build the next generation of solutions. --- # These Products Are Part of a Bigger Idea It may seem that 7 Bucks, MDB2C, Global Rail and MDA & PreYuni are completely different. In one sense, they are. But there is a common thread. **They all attempt to solve problems through systems.** Financial connectivity. Commerce. Logistics. International access. Education. These are not isolated problems. They are parts of a larger infrastructure. And that is the direction we want to explore further. --- # What Comes Next? There are still enormous problems to solve. Energy. Water. Agriculture. Manufacturing. Transport. Housing. Education. Healthcare. Financial access. Digital infrastructure. Automation. And many problems that we haven't even named yet. We don't believe one company can solve all of them. But we also don't believe that a company needs to solve everything to make a meaningful contribution. You can start with one problem. Understand it. Build something. Test it. Improve it. Then solve another. That is how infrastructure gets built. That is how industries develop. And that is how technology becomes useful. --- # Zimbabwe Does Not Only Need Problems Solved. It Needs Things Built. We believe there is a difference between talking about Africa's problems and building for Africa's future. We want to be on the building side. That means experimenting. Engineering. Developing software. Creating businesses. Connecting markets. Developing products. Learning from failure. Improving what works. And eventually taking successful ideas beyond Zimbabwe. Because the goal isn't simply to build something that works in Zimbabwe. The bigger question is: **Can we build something in Zimbabwe that can eventually work for Africa and beyond?** That is the challenge we are interested in. And that is the kind of work we want Mahachi Desmond Private Limited to keep doing. **Identify the problem.** **Understand the system.** **Engineer the solution.** **Build it.** **Improve it.** **Scale it.** --- ## References * World Bank — *Zimbabwe Growth and Jobs Report*, 2026. * World Bank — *Zimbabwe Must Leverage Macroeconomic Stability to Accelerate Growth and Create 230,000 New Jobs by 2040*, September 2026. * World Bank — *Electrifying Zimbabwe's Growth Through Reliable and Universal Energy Access*. * World Bank — *Zimbabwe Economic Update 2025: Fostering a Business-Enabling Regulatory Environment for Private Sector Growth*.