Ideas Festival 2025: Zimbabwe’s Marketplace of Ideas Delivers on Its Promise

As the fourth edition of the Ideas Festival wrapped up on Friday morning at Troutbeck Resort in Nyanga, I returned to my opening challenge to delegates: Zimbabwe will only change when you change.

Over three powerful days, October 28 to 31, we witnessed this truth take human form. Record attendance. High-quality dialogue. Serious collaboration. Deals beginning to germinate. Networks forged in the crisp Nyanga air, free from office noise and the cynicism that sometimes clouds our national conversations. This was Zimbabwe’s builders, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, policymakers, and regional thinkers, gathered with one shared mission: nation-building.

Our theme, “The Future of Human Capital, Innovation and Ethics in the Age of AI,” was timely and urgent. Nations are built by citizens who pursue their passions in an enabling environment. Ideas become enterprises. Enterprises become jobs and dignity. Human capital becomes national capital.

Throughout our Ideas Panels, Masterclasses, Ideas Tank, and fireside conversations, we saw minds stretched, assumptions challenged, and courage strengthened.

Simba Kanenungo of Winfield Strategy and Innovation set the tone: Africa must stop being a passive consumer of foreign technology. “Innovation is just a model, a process, a product that is novel and useful,” he reminded us—and framed AI as Africa's next development frontier.

The messages that followed were uncompromising.

Nigel Chanakira, business leader and philanthropist, delivered perhaps the most provocative session of the festival. He warned that Zimbabwe risks losing its moral compass by idolising material success over purpose. “Leadership is not the corner office; it is unshakable authority rooted in purpose,” he said. His warning against soulless materialism struck many nerves—exactly as intended. Real leadership outlives the leader.

Shingai Mutasa, Masawara Group founder, electrified the final day. He called for a fundamental redesign of Zimbabwe’s financial infrastructure to support future entrepreneurs. But his most powerful line was about responsibility: “If the roads have potholes, let’s stop looking at somebody else and start asking, ‘What can we do?’” Nation-building begins with personal accountability. Zimbabwe changes when Zimbabweans change.

Tawanda Nyambirai, Group CEO of TN CyberTech Investments Holdings, emphasised banking innovation driven by technology and convenience. Nyambirai has courage and creativity to build a different bank. 

Stafford Masie, global tech visionary, warned that AI and decentralised finance will reshape power structures—and called for ethical leadership in a tech-driven world.

On health and values, Dr Matthew Wazara and Bishop Percy Kadziyanike reminded us that nation-building is not only economic; it is spiritual, ethical, and communal. A country rises when its values rise.

Chido Dzinotyiwei, Vambo AI founder, passionately asserted Africa’s AI opportunity, US$1.3 trillion, and demanded African-owned data, content, and language models. Her mission to train AI in 2,000 African languages was a highlight.

Ashleigh Nyambirai of TN Livestock Trust demonstrated how livestock is a powerful financial asset for rural communities—driving productivity, inclusion, and resilience. It is time we modernise old wisdom.

One of the landmark moments of #IdeasFestival2025 was the launch of Zimbabwe’s Leading Brands Survey by Thebe Ikalafeng of Brand Africa—the continent’s authority in brand excellence. Econet Wireless topped the rankings, with Mazoe, CBZ, Chicken Inn, ProBrands, and Nyaradzo also excelling. Proof, once again, that Zimbabweans can build world-class brands.

Yet Ikalafeng left us with a sobering truth:64% of Zimbabweans believe in Africa, but only 46% believe in African brands.

Belief must become investment. Patriotism must include economic participation.

This survey will now be an annual fixture at the Festival—a mirror, a benchmark, and an inspiration. Results of the survey are available on request. 

Our Ideas Tank, powered by Eight2Five Innovation Hub and Old Mutual for the third year, remained one of the Festival’s most energetic spaces. Start-ups pitched bold solutions to investors and mentors. The top three walked away with Starlink kits and support programmes from Winfield and Nigel Chanakira. But more important than prizes were the partnerships sparked and investor conversations begun.

Innovation is our new liberation struggle. Entrepreneurship is economic patriotism.

This Festival is powered by believers, not spectators. To our sponsors, Tawanda Nyambirai, TN CyberTech Bank, TN Livestock Trust, TN Asset Management, Nick Vingirai, Old Mutual, Eight2Five Innovation Hub, Solomon Guramatunhu, thank you for investing in ideas and people.

To our partners—the French Embassy in Zimbabwe, Old Mutual, Eight2Five, Winfield Innovation & Strategy, and the World Food Programme—your conviction fuels momentum. The French Embassy’s partnership marks a milestone: international partners not dictating, but joining Zimbabwe’s innovation journey.

As delegates exchanged contacts, made plans, and departed with renewed purpose, one truth became clear: something extraordinary happened in Nyanga.

If you missed it, you missed:

• Doors opening that don't open often

• Conversations that shape tomorrow

• Networks that accelerate progress

• Ideas tested, refined, and launched

Progress does not wait forever. Nor does destiny.

#IdeasFestival2026 returns to Troutbeck, October 27–30, 2026. Mark your calendar now. If you are an entrepreneur, investor, policymaker, corporate leader, or believer in Zimbabwe’s future, this is your place.

To prospective sponsors: this is more than branding. This is legacy work. This is Zimbabwe’s Davos—not in geography, but in ambition, seriousness, and purpose. When you support the Ideas Festival, you are investing in ethical leadership, innovation, and nation-building.

Partnership growth this year, from established institutions like Old Mutual to new champions like TN CyberTech and Nick Vingirai, shows that visionary organisations understand where history is bending.

We are building a culture of reading, thinking, debating, and doing. We are making curiosity fashionable again. We are proving that beyond headlines and noise lies a country rich with possibility, powered by bold minds.

First, we change ourselves. Then we change Zimbabwe.

Nations rise when ideas meet courage and debate meets action. That is the marketplace we have built here.

To everyone who attended: thank you. You showed up with humility, energy, and imagination. You collaborated. You inspired. You reminded us that Zimbabwe’s greatest asset is not minerals—it is people with purpose.

To those who missed it: don’t miss 2026. If you doubt me, ask those who were at Troutbeck. Better yet, experience it.

Because here is the truth again: Zimbabwe will only change when you change.

Change happens when we gather. When we listen. When we challenge and uplift one another. When we dream and act together.

See you at Troutbeck, Nyanga, October 27–30, 2026.

The beautiful revolution continues.

By Trevor Ncube, the Convenor of the Ideas Festival, Managing Partner of Trevor & Associates, and Chairman of Alpha Media Holdings