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Farai Dauramanzi recently in KADOMA

Small businesses owned by youths and involved in construction have thanked President Mnangagwa for the road construction contracts they have been awarded, resulting in the massive growth of their businesses.

The Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa is on a drive to revive road infrastructure and is awarding contracts to local entrepreneurs where possible and appropriate, as it presses ahead with the mantra, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo”.

Frogmerge Construction engineers carrying out soil inspections on one of the roads under rehabilitation in Rimuka, Kadoma

Massive road rehabilitation works under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme are underway across the country as the President wants the roads to be navigable.

Large Zimbabwean companies such as Bitumen World, Fossil Contractors, Masimba Construction, Tensor Systems, Exodus and many others, have been at the forefront of road construction projects.

Some of the companies are implementing huge projects including the Harare-Beitbridge Highway, and have demonstrated that they have capacity to tackle projects on any magnitude given the workmanship on the key road. But new players such as Frogmerge Construction, owned by young entrepreneur Engineer Shingi Vhiriri (38), is one of the start-ups that have grown into formidable forces in the road construction sector.

Frogmerge has successfully undertaken several road construction contracts which include St Patricks Road in Hatfield and roads in Highfield, Chitungwiza, Waterfalls and other areas in Harare. 

Frogmerge Construction equipment work on one of the roads under rehabilitation in Rimuka, Kadoma

In an interview in Kadoma where Frogmerge was rehabilitating a stretch of Nyambo and Parirenyatwa roads, Eng Vhiriri thanked President Mnangagwa’s administration for giving local contractors a chance to grow their businesses.

“We are thankful to the President for giving us a chance to showcase our abilities as local companies and also affording us the opportunity to acquire more equipment,” said Eng Vhiriri.

He said the weekly Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction system had capacitated local companies to import equipment.

“We started road construction in 2018 and right now we have got new complements of road construction equipment coming in and the company is growing,” he said.

Frogmerge now has a staff complement of over 100 full-time employees as well as hiring many other workers on contract in the areas that the company would be doing roadworks.

The granting of road construction tenders to local companies, said Eng Vhiriri, has enabled locally owned firms to create employment and grow. 

“We have managed to engage young engineers and also give jobs to both men and women,” he explained.

Many developmental projects are being carried out around the country, in line with the Second Republic’s Vision 2030 of achieving an upper middle income economy, and the National Development Strategy 1 programmes.