Make the ecosystem visible
A live actor registry, regular founder surveys and better island-level evidence.
THE ECOSYSTEM, IN FOCUS
Evidence for a stronger ecosystem.
A starting point for understanding Zanzibar’s strengths, constraints and priorities across Unguja and Pemba.
SAHARA CONSULT · 2026The State of the
The State of the
Zanzibar Startup
Ecosystem
Mapping, scoring and benchmarking
the road to Silicon Zanzibar
THE RESEARCH BASEReal building blocks.
Real building blocks.
A shared agenda.
The report finds an ecosystem in an early activation stage, with policy ambition and emerging institutions. It identifies access to capital, coordination, market connections and research commercialisation as priorities.
Download the report (PDF)Sahara Consult, supplied draft assessment, 2026. Directional analysis, not an audited ranking or startup census.
EIGHT-DOMAIN BASELINE
Ecosystem maturity
2.3/ 5
Overall maturity, rounded from 2.25.
Unweighted mean of the eight domains.
ANDE-based analyst judgements. Evidence confidence ranges from low to medium. Scores indicate priorities rather than precise performance measures.
Policy & regulation3.5
Infrastructure3.0
Culture & networks2.5
Markets & demand2.0
Talent2.0
Support organisations2.0
Finance & investment1.5
Research & innovation1.5
Three priorities for collective action
Connect support to demand
Stronger referrals between founders, research institutions, finance and potential customers.
Include both islands
Pemba-disaggregated startup data are missing from the supplied evidence. A gap in data is not evidence of absent activity.