Hichilema Urges COMESA to Trade Closer to Home as Zambia Hands Over Land for New Headquarters

President Hakainde Hichilema used the 25th COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit in Harare yesterday to call on the bloc’s 21 member states to trade more with each other before looking further afield, arguing that deeper regional trade would create jobs and open up business opportunities across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Addressing the summit, held under the theme “One Market, One Future: Advancing Inclusive Industrialisation, Investment and Regional Integration in COMESA”, the President urged members to remove trade barriers, improve connectivity and make it easier for goods, services and people to move across the region. He also pressed for non-stop border posts and more efficient border management to cut delays and reduce the cost of doing business.

Zambia’s standing within the bloc was strengthened on two fronts. The country assumed the COMESA Vice-Chairmanship, and President Hichilema handed over the certificate of title for 14 hectares of land along Lusaka’s Airport Road, valued at more than USD 7 million, for the construction of COMESA’s new headquarters. The allocation, increased from an initial 10 acres, is set to accommodate a modern headquarters building, a 200-room hotel and a conference facility seating 1,000. The COMESA Secretariat signed a USD 140 million framework agreement with China State Construction Engineering Corporation in October 2025 to finance and build the complex, and a groundbreaking ceremony attended by both Presidents is expected in due course.