What the 2026 National Budget Says about Arts & Creative Economy in Zimbabwe

by artweb

Minister Mthuli Ncube standing from of a sculpture at the Parliament of Zimbabwe before presenting the 2026 National Budget. (Image: Facebook/Financial Times)

The 2026 national budget presented by Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube has sparked new discussion across Zimbabwe’s creative sector, especially as the government frames “Job Creation, Youth Entrepreneurship and Development, Creative Industry and Culture” as one of its ten national priorities for the coming year. At the centre of this priority is an allocation of ZiG 841.4 million to the Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, together with ZiG 1.7 billion to the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training, a portion of which is expected to support youth-driven creative industries and entrepreneurship. These figures come from the official budget statement released on 27 November 2025.

The allocation is modest when placed alongside the major sectors of education, health, security, agriculture and public infrastructure, which together take up the overwhelming share of national spending. For example, education receives ZiG 47.4 billion, health ZiG 30.4 billion, security ZiG 46.8 billion and agriculture ZiG 26.8 billion. In comparison, arts and culture receive a fraction of the national pie. Yet, within this imbalance lies a story that is more complex than the numbers alone suggest. For years, Zimbabwe’s creative economy has existed in a space of both vibrancy and neglect - thriving through community resilience, informal structures, and private initiative, even as formal government investment in the sector has remained limited. In this context, the explicit naming of the “creative industry” as a strategic priority is a meaningful signal that culture is being recognised within the broader economic and developmental architecture of Vision 2030.

This recognition matters. It means the government, at least in principle, accepts that creativity is part of the national growth matrix, that youth-driven cultural production deserves structural support, and that culture itself carries economic value. It opens a small but real window through which creative organisations, artists, galleries and cultural entrepreneurs can make a case for funding alignment, partnerships, and programmatic support. For young creatives, the youth budget - which is much larger than the culture allocation - could be the doorway to vocational training, small loans, entrepreneurship programmes or innovation hubs, depending on how the ministries implement their spending plans.

Even with these possibilities, the limitations remain clear. The allocation for “sports, recreation, arts and culture” is bundled into a single line, which means the lion’s share may naturally lean toward sports infrastructure such as stadiums, recreational facilities and large-scale events that are politically visible and carry mass appeal. Contemporary art, cultural institutions, independent galleries, grassroots creative practice and cultural research may receive only a small portion of the available funds unless there is deliberate effort to ring-fence resources for the arts. The budget also lacks detailed sub-allocations, making it difficult to assess exactly how much of the ZiG 841.4 million will directly touch the arts ecosystem.

Nevertheless, the acknowledgement within the national budget gives the creative sector something it has long needed - policy visibility. For artists, curators, arts organisations and creative entrepreneurs, this moment invites strategic engagement with government. It becomes possible to advocate for clearer cultural funding lines, transparent disbursement mechanisms and the development of cultural infrastructure that serves both local communities and the professional art world. With the right advocacy, this could also support the growth of creative districts, contemporary art centres, studios, residency programmes, and cultural tourism.

For those of us working actively in Zimbabwe’s contemporary fine art ecosystem this budget provides a narrative context that can strengthen our work. It allows us to situate our projects within a recognised national priority, demonstrating to investors, private partners, foundations, and international organisations that Zimbabwe’s creative economy is inching its way into the political and economic agenda.

The 2026 budget is therefore a mixed signal: small in financial scale but significant in symbolic and developmental positioning. It does not yet provide the transformative investment needed to unlock the full power of Zimbabwe’s creative sector, but it places culture within the formal economic conversation and that alone shifts the starting point. The future now depends on how effectively the sector mobilises around this recognition, how transparently the funds are deployed, and how boldly creative leaders push for deeper integration of arts and culture into national development planning.