The Global Business Achievers Network has announced a compelling calendar of flagship events for 2026 that represents the most ambitious programme in the organisation’s short but striking history, with Zimbabwe’s Vice President, Hon. Col (Rtd) K.C.D. Mohadi, confirmed as Guest of Honour at the network’s high-level Networking Night on 17 July at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Harare. The evening, which runs from 17:00 to 22:00 hours at the storied Meikles Hotel in the heart of the capital’s central business district, marks the opening act of a three-part programme that includes a Business Summit in August and the organisation’s annual awards ceremony, which will be held later in the year.
The Networking Night will also feature Hon. Monica Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, as Guest Speaker. The presence of two of the country’s most senior government figures at what is fundamentally a private sector convening reflects the deepening alignment between the state’s economic priorities and the business networks now actively shaping Zimbabwe’s standing as a destination for continental and international investment. It is a relationship that has matured with notable speed since the network’s founding barely fourteen months ago.
The Global Business Achievers Network was established in Harare, with an additional office maintained in Birmingham, England, and has since grown into a multi-tiered annual enterprise with reach across the African continent and the United Kingdom. At its inaugural summit in May 2025, Dr Tendesai Mushamba, the organisation’s chief executive, described the gathering as the first of its kind in Zimbabwe. That event drew business leaders and investors from the United Kingdom, Canada, Cameroon, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa, alongside SADC regional delegates and a reigning monarch from Cameroon. Platinum Awards at the founding ceremony were conferred upon Cleopas Chiketa of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Maxwell Chitendeni of Zimpost, and Pretty Mlalazi, chief executive of Yakha Bricks.
By November 2025, the network was convening its third awards ceremony, having expanded the categories on offer and drawing a markedly stronger cohort of female and young nominees across private and public companies, parastatals and local authorities. The progression was deliberate. “We are honouring outstanding business leaders and service providers who have distinguished themselves as the economy continues on a growth trajectory,” Dr Mushamba said ahead of that third edition. “There are more female nominees this year, a reflection that women are breaking into previously male-dominated economic spheres.”
For the 2026 programme, Dr Mushamba has articulated a bolder and more expansive vision. “What we are building is not a series of events but an enduring institution that connects Zimbabwean and African business talent with the capital, the policy architecture, and the global relationships required to translate ambition into sustained economic outcomes,” he said. “The Networking Night in July is designed to open those conversations at the highest level. When the Vice President of Zimbabwe joins us as our Guest of Honour, it affirms that the private sector and government share a common agenda, and that this platform has earned a place at the table where that agenda is shaped.”
The Business Summit, scheduled for 21 August at the Hyatt Regency under the theme “Connecting Minds, Building Futures and Empowering Partnerships for Shared Success,” will run from 08:00 to 16:00 hours and is designed to facilitate strategic dialogue between government and the private sector, promote investment and industrial development, and strengthen regional and international business partnerships. The summit will place particular emphasis on empowering entrepreneurs and emerging leaders with actionable insights and networks, and arrives as Zimbabwe continues to pursue a sustained programme of foreign direct investment attraction across its mining, agricultural and digital technology sectors.
The annual awards ceremony, which will honour outstanding business leaders and corporate achievers drawn from across the private and public sectors, is scheduled for later in 2026. Previous editions of the awards have recognised excellence across an expanding range of categories, with the network’s deliberate effort to broaden representation ensuring that each successive ceremony has reflected a wider cross-section of Zimbabwe’s economic landscape.
The network’s trajectory reflects a wider continental realignment in how African economies are constructing internal architectures for recognising and replicating business excellence. Where such platforms once functioned primarily as social occasions, organisations such as GBAN are increasingly sophisticated intermediaries between enterprise and policy, between diaspora capital and domestic opportunity. At the inaugural forum in 2025, a regional investor from South Africa captured the network’s animating proposition plainly: “The networks should continue because they give us an insight about what is happening in Zimbabwe, how I can fit as a regional investor in terms of the opportunities and the overall thrust of industrialisation.”
For a country that has spent much of the past two decades navigating profound economic and reputational headwinds, the emergence of a platform capable of drawing its Vice President, cabinet ministers, and investors from across Africa and the United Kingdom within its first fourteen months of existence represents more than institutional momentum. It is evidence that Zimbabwe’s business community is increasingly prepared to narrate its own story of resilience and potential on its own stage, in its own voice, and with growing confidence in the audience it can command.
The GBAN Networking Night takes place on 17 July 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Harare. The Business Summit follows on 21 August at the same venue. Further information is available from globalbusinessachievers.co.zw.
