If you ask a young person in Zimbabwe what they want most out of life, their answer is rarely extravagant. It’s not about flash cars or instant riches it’s about dignity, purpose, and a way to earn an honest living. And yet, for far too many, even those modest dreams feel frustratingly out of reach.
With over 60% of Zimbabwe’s population under the age of 35, youth unemployment is not just a statistic it’s a slow-burning crisis. It breeds hopelessness, drives migration, fuels informal hustles, and can even stir unrest. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
What Zimbabwe needs now isn’t more slogans or short-term fixes. It needs bold, practical, people-centred solutions. And most of all, it needs to start trusting young Zimbabweans not just as jobseekers but as job creators, innovators, and builders of the economy.
Here are eight interconnected strategies that, together, could unlock meaningful, lasting employment for the next generation.
Start With Skills: Fixing the Education-to-Employment Gap
Zimbabwe has long prided itself on its education system. But there’s a glaring gap between academic knowledge and practical employability. Graduates leave university well-read, but not always work-ready. Employers want critical thinking, digital literacy, and technical ability but many school leavers lack these.
What’s needed:
- Revise the national curriculum to focus on job-relevant skills in tech, agriculture, trades, and business.
- Scale up Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) with modern facilities and qualified trainers.
- Introduce entrepreneurship education from early secondary level.
- Create structured internship and apprenticeship schemes in collaboration with the private sector.
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Fund and Formalise Youth Entrepreneurship
If formal jobs aren’t available, many young people will find a way to hustle. Street vending, mobile hair salons, informal delivery services Zimbabwe’s youth are already doing it all. The problem? They lack capital, support, and long-term stability.
Key strategies:
- Launch youth-targeted microloan schemes with low interest and financial literacy training.
- Invest in business incubation hubs to offer mentoring, shared workspaces, and access to legal advice.
- Simplify the process of registering small businesses and reduce licensing fees.
- Offer tax incentives for youth-led businesses that formalise.
Why it matters: When young people can build their own businesses with support, they don’t just survive they hire others too.
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Tap into the Digital Economy
The world of work is changing fast. From freelance design and coding to virtual assistance and e-commerce, digital skills open doors to global income streams without leaving home.
What Zimbabwe can do:
- Introduce national digital skills training at community level, especially in rural areas.
- Build public-private partnerships to provide subsidised devices and affordable internet.
- Offer grants for digital startups, such as app development or online services.
- Support freelancers with payment gateways, tax tools, and export guidance.
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Modernise and Rebrand Agriculture
Agriculture remains Zimbabwe’s economic backbone, yet it’s often dismissed by youth as hard, outdated, or “for the old folks”. That mindset has to change—because farming today is ripe for innovation.
How to make agriculture youth-friendly:
- Promote climate-smart agriculture and agri-tech training.
- Fund youth-led cooperatives with land access and capital.
- Teach value addition (e.g., making chilli sauce from raw peppers or drying tomatoes for export).
- Host agripreneur competitions to rebrand farming as profitable and creative.
📌 Why it matters: If just 10% more youth engaged in profitable, tech-enabled agriculture, rural economies could be transformed.
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Unlock the Power of MSMEs and the Private Sector
No government in the world can employ all its citizens. It’s the private sector and small-to-medium enterprises (MSMEs) that must absorb the labour force—but they need the right conditions.
What’s required:
- Reduce bureaucracy and corruption that discourage small business registration.
- Improve access to affordable finance and insurance for MSMEs.
- Offer incentives for companies to train and hire youth, such as tax breaks or subsidised wages.
- Support value chain development (e.g., connecting farmers to food processors and retailers).
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Respect and Support the Informal Sector
More than 70% of Zimbabweans work informally selling airtime, fixing phones, tailoring clothes, or driving kombis. Instead of viewing the informal sector as a problem, treat it as part of the solution.
How to build on what’s already working:
- Provide informal sector ID cards to access health cover, training, and pension schemes.
- Create safe, legal vending spaces with water, sanitation, and storage.
- Encourage voluntary tax compliance through education and gradual incentives.
📌 Why it matters: Most youth are already active informally—supporting them raises their income, security, and productivity.
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Harness Diaspora Support More Strategically
Zimbabweans abroad send billions home every year but that money mostly goes to consumption, not job creation.
Here’s what can be done:
- Launch diaspora-led youth investment funds to support small enterprises back home.
- Develop a diaspora mentorship network, matching young locals with Zimbabwean professionals abroad.
- Promote diaspora co-ownership of community-based businesses and cooperatives.
📌 Why it matters: Zimbabwe’s global citizens are an untapped source of funding, skills, and networks.
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Anchor It All in Good Governance and Stability
No economic strategy works without the right governance. Young people won’t invest time or money in a system they don’t trust.
What must change:
- Strengthen policy consistency especially around land, taxes, and labour laws.
- Increase youth involvement in policymaking through councils, advisory boards, and consultations.
- Prioritise transparency in youth development funds, to avoid corruption and misallocation.
- Reinforce rule of law and anti-corruption enforcement, so young entrepreneurs can thrive fairly.
Final Thoughts: Youth Are the Solution—Not the Problem
Too often, youth unemployment is framed as a crisis to be managed. But what if we reframe it as an opportunity to unlock Zimbabwe’s greatest resource its people?
This generation is dynamic, resilient, tech-savvy, and ambitious. They don’t want handouts they want a chance. A system that works. A government that listens. A society that believes in their ideas.
The future isn’t something we’re waiting for it’s something we’re building now. And if Zimbabwe chooses to invest in its youth with serious, practical action, then the next chapter could be one of the country’s most promising yet.
