In a nation striving toward inclusive digital transformation and youth empowerment, the official opening of a self-funded Computer Information Centre in Matapi, Mbare stands as a powerful symbol of what grassroots action can achieve. Spearheaded entirely by residents under the Mbare Renewal Project, this initiative is not only bridging the digital divide but redefining community-led development through empowerment, infrastructure renewal, and skills training.
Located in one of Harare’s oldest and most densely populated suburbs, the centre has quickly become a beacon of hope and progress. It offers free digital literacy training to young people, many of whom have faced long-standing exclusion from economic opportunities due to limited access to skills, connectivity, and technology. Through this ICT hub, the community is not just laying bricks, they are laying the foundation for a more digitally fluent and economically productive youth.
Christopher Chisese, director of the Mbare Renewal Project, summed up the spirit of the initiative, explaining that it was entirely built by locals, with support from within Matapi Flats, Majubheki, and Matererini. “The project is not just about infrastructure but renewing the mindset of our fellow youths,” he noted. “An idle mind is what pushes people to drugs. This centre exists to empower them, and it is free.” The project’s organic nature and its deep roots within the community mark it as a rare but replicable model of homegrown innovation meeting national development priorities.
Young people who have passed through the centre credit it with changing their lives. Some now know how to design their own CVs, others are using social media to market small businesses such as nail bars or food ventures. For many, the centre has offered a meaningful alternative to drug and substance abuse, a growing crisis in Zimbabwe’s urban centres. It has become a place where purpose and skills intersect.
The national government has taken notice. Minister of Skills Audit and Development, Professor Paul Mavima, described the project as “a seed that will grow,” placing it within Zimbabwe’s broader development vision. “All development is based on the human capital of a country,” he said, “and that capital must be skilled and competent. This is how you transform families, communities and nations.”
Echoing this sentiment, Honourable Tatenda Mavetera, Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, praised the initiative’s alignment with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s vision for a digitally empowered society. She revealed that 68 graduates had already completed foundational digital training at the centre and promised continued support through the Presidential Computerisation Programme and a national 1.5 million coding campaign.
What makes Mbare’s centre particularly noteworthy is its sustainability and ownership model. Unlike top-down projects that often suffer from community disengagement, this initiative’s local authorship has bred a deep sense of responsibility and resilience. It’s not just about digital skills, it’s about agency, community pride, and reclaiming space for productivity and innovation in a suburb often stereotyped for poverty and idleness.
As Zimbabwe marches toward its Vision 2030 goals, Mbare’s ICT centre offers a prototype of possibility. It shows how national digital strategies can be powered not just by policy but by people, ordinary citizens who refuse to wait and instead build their own future, brick by digital brick.
