By Business Reporter | The money Zimbabwe spent mounting Nehanda statue could have been used to build a new hospital of British standards, figures from the UK publisher Statista show.

The numbers show that a clinic the size of 100 square metres could have been constructed with the money used.

The cost of building a hospital per square metre in Northern Ireland is £1460.

The Nehanda statue’s metal bridge alone cost a whopping R2,1 million [£110,000] before labour and before import costs from South Africa. Correspondence with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Zimra shows that the bridge’s steel was imported from South Africa.

Zimbabwe is one of the world’s largest producers of steel.

The erecting of the Nehanda statue comes at a time when Nehanda meternity ward, at Harare Hospital is in shambles as patients are forced to bring their own drinking water from home.