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Hichilema Returns From COMESA Summit as Vice-Chair, Hands Over Title for New Headquarters in Lusaka

The Zambian Economist — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:53:05 +0000

Zambia leaves the 25th COMESA Summit as Vice-Chairperson of the bloc, with a title deed handed over for a new headquarters in Lusaka and a call for member states to buy from each other first.

By The Zambian Economist Analyst

KEY TAKEAWAYS

President Hakainde Hichilema used his address at the 25th COMESA Summit in Harare to urge the 21 member states to trade more with each other before looking elsewhere.
Zambia assumed the role of COMESA Vice-Chairperson as Kenya’s President William Ruto handed the chairmanship to Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Zambia handed over a certificate of title for land on which member states will build a new COMESA headquarters in Lusaka.
Intra-COMESA exports have fallen from a peak of about US$18 billion in 2023 to about US$13 billion in 2025, according to a ZimTrade brief, which shows the size of the task.

President Hakainde Hichilema has returned to Lusaka from Harare after the 25th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Heads of State and Government Summit, where Zambia took up the role of Vice-Chairperson and formally committed land for a new headquarters for the bloc.

In a statement after the summit, the President said he had called on all 21 member states “to trade more with each other before looking elsewhere,” arguing that this would create more jobs and business opportunities across the region. He said the Grow Zambia Agenda had also featured in his discussions.

A new seat for the Secretariat

During the summit, Zambia handed over a certificate of title deed for the member states to build a new COMESA headquarters in Lusaka. The Secretariat has been based in Lusaka since the bloc was established, so the title deed secures that position for the long term rather than creating it.

A purpose-built headquarters brings practical benefits for the host city: construction work, regional staff based in Lusaka, and a steady flow of meetings, delegations and technical missions. Those gains will depend on member states agreeing the financing and getting the building done, which the summit did not settle publicly.

Vice-Chair to Zimbabwe’s chairmanship

President Ruto of Kenya handed the COMESA chairmanship to President Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, the summit host. Zambia, which chaired the bloc after hosting the 22nd Summit in Lusaka in 2023, now sits as Vice-Chairperson. The role keeps Lusaka at the centre of the bloc’s leadership over the coming year.

The trade gap behind the call

The President’s appeal reflects a long-standing weakness. Member states still trade far more with markets outside the bloc than with each other. A ZimTrade brief published in October estimates that intra-COMESA exports peaked at about US$18 billion in 2023 before falling to about US$13 billion in 2025, and that goods from other members make up only around 4 percent of imports.

For Zambian producers, the regional market is close and large. Copper dominates exports to the rest of the world, but processed foods, cement, fertiliser, sugar and manufactured goods are the kinds of products that tend to find buyers in neighbouring markets first. Selling more of them into the region is one of the more realistic ways to widen the export base that the Grow Zambia Agenda is targeting.

Words at a summit do not remove the obstacles. Slow border clearance, non-tariff barriers, poor rail and road links, and payment and currency frictions keep regional trade expensive. Progress on those points will show whether the call to trade with each other first turns into more trucks, trains and invoices crossing COMESA borders.

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Hichilema Heads to Harare for 25th COMESA Summit as Zimbabwe Takes the Chair

The Zambian Economist — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:18:48 +0000

By The Zambian Economist Analyst

Key takeaways

President Hakainde Hichilema travels to Harare for the 25th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government on Thursday, 22 October 2026.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa takes over the COMESA chair from Kenya’s William Ruto, with Eswatini as vice-chair and Kenya as rapporteur.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mulambo Haimbe says Zambia will push for the removal of trade barriers, stronger regional value chains and better connectivity.
The stakes for Zambian exporters are real: the DRC, a COMESA member, took about 36 percent of Zambia’s non-traditional exports in 2023, while the bloc’s internal exports have fallen about 28 percent from their 2023 peak.

President Hakainde Hichilema is expected in Harare, Zimbabwe, for the 25th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on Thursday, 22 October 2026. The summit runs under the theme “One Market, One Future: Advancing Inclusive Industrialisation, Investment and Regional Integration in COMESA”, and Zambia, which hosts the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka, wants it to produce fewer border obstacles for its goods.

Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mulambo Haimbe announced the trip in a statement. He said the President’s attendance reflects Zambia’s commitment to regional integration and to the Grow Zambia Agenda, the government’s programme for growth, trade, investment and opportunities for local firms.

What Zambia wants from Harare

Mr Haimbe set out three asks. Zambia will press for the removal of trade barriers, stronger regional value chains and improved connectivity between member states. President Hichilema is expected to discuss practical steps on integration and industrialisation with fellow leaders, and to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines focused on trade, investment and Zambia’s development priorities.

The minister said the aim is wider markets for Zambian goods and services, more value addition at home and more room for local enterprises to compete. Those are government objectives, and the summit itself will not deliver them. What it can do is set the direction that the COMESA Council of Ministers and national customs authorities then have to implement.

Why the numbers make this summit matter for Zambia

COMESA brings together 21 member states with a combined population of more than 640 million people and a total GDP of about US$1.2 trillion, according to figures cited by Zimbabwe’s foreign ministry ahead of the summit. On paper that is a large market. In practice, member states still trade relatively little with each other.

A ZimTrade trade brief reported by Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper this month puts intra-COMESA exports at US$13 billion in 2025, down from a peak of US$18 billion in 2023. That is a fall of roughly 28 percent in two years.

For Zambia the regional market is far from abstract. The Zambia Development Agency’s 2023 Exporter Survey found that the Democratic Republic of Congo, a COMESA member, absorbed US$1.54 billion of Zambia’s non-traditional exports that year, about 36 percent of the total. Combined COMESA and SADC markets took US$1.95 billion, or 46 percent. When a truck of cement, maize meal or steel is held at a border post, it is often these markets that are affected.

Indicator	Figure	Source
COMESA member states	21	Government of Zimbabwe
Combined population	640 million+	Government of Zimbabwe
Combined GDP	About US$1.2 trillion	Government of Zimbabwe
Intra-COMESA exports, 2023 peak	US$18 billion	ZimTrade
Intra-COMESA exports, 2025	US$13 billion	ZimTrade
DRC share of Zambia’s non-traditional exports, 2023	About 36%	Zambia Development Agency

Zimbabwe takes the chair

The summit will oversee the handover of the COMESA Authority chair from Kenyan President William Ruto to President Mnangagwa. The new bureau will have Zimbabwe as chairperson, Eswatini as vice-chairperson and Kenya as rapporteur. Under COMESA’s rotation, the host country usually holds the chair for one year, which places Zimbabwe at the head of the bloc for 2026 to 2027.

That has a practical edge for Zambia. Zimbabwe is a direct neighbour and a close trading partner: ZimTrade data shows Zimbabwe’s exports to Zambia rose from US$52.6 million in 2020 to US$131.4 million in 2025, making Zambia Zimbabwe’s most important COMESA market. A chair whose own trade depends heavily on the Zambian border has reason to take cross-border friction seriously. Zimbabwe last hosted the summit in Victoria Falls in 2009, when the COMESA Customs Union was launched.

What is on the agenda?

According to Mr Haimbe, leaders will review progress on regional integration and consider priority programmes to speed up economic cooperation. They will also consider decisions and reports from lower policy organs, including the COMESA Council of Ministers and ministers responsible for foreign affairs, together with the outcomes of the 19th COMESA Business Forum held in Harare earlier this week.

Zimbabwean officials have been blunt about the gap between promises and delivery. Zimbabwe’s Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu told business delegates that the immediate task was to “convert these commitments into implementation”.

What it means for Zambian businesses and investors

For exporters

Firms selling into the DRC, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Kenya should watch for summit decisions on non-tariff barriers, such as permit delays, duplicated inspections and inconsistent rules of origin. These add cost even where tariffs are already zero under the COMESA Free Trade Area.

For investors

Zambia’s pitch to investors leans on access to regional markets beyond its own population of about 21 million. Commitments on value chains, particularly around copper, cobalt and agro-processing, would strengthen that case. Statements without timelines would not.

For ordinary Zambians

Smoother borders mean lower transport costs, which feed into the price of imported goods and the earnings of local producers who sell abroad. The effect is slow and indirect, and it depends on what customs officers at Chirundu, Kasumbalesa and Victoria Falls actually do after the summit ends.

What happens next

Mr Haimbe said Zambia, as host of the COMESA Secretariat, remains committed to the organisation’s objectives and will keep working with other member states. President Hichilema is expected to return home after his engagements in Zimbabwe. The summit communiqué, normally issued at the close, will be the first test of whether Zambia’s three asks made it onto the bloc’s to-do list. The Zambian Economist will report on the outcome.