ZayoHub, a programme set up by iAfrica Foundation, works with communities living in under-served, climate-change affected communities, to create locally-driven sustainable social and economic development.

The solar powered tech-enabled hubs offer community services and programmes focused on financial inclusion, sustainable livelihoods, and education. The hubs are managed by local agents, recruited from within the community and serve non-migratory rural communities of between 3,000 and 5,000 population size.

BuildX Studio was contracted by ZayoHub to design and build three community hubs that could be safely built using local labour and materials, with minimal expert supervision and at minimal cost. 

 We built the 130m² hubs in three different locations in Zambia in less than four months at a cost of approximately $130/m². We employed 35 local, unskilled workers, of which more than 50% were women, and trained them in sandbag construction technology. The expected number of 5,000 users per Hub was exceeded in the first year of operation.