Cash-strapped Zimbabwe announced on Wednesday that it plans to build a $1bn university to honour Robert Mugabe, the 93-year-old president accused of brutal repression and bringing the country to economic ruin.

The university joins other facilities named after Mugabe including the government's school of intelligence, a main street in the capital Harare and the highway to his rural home.

"Cabinet has approved the establishment of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University," Jonathan Moyo, minister of tertiary education, told a news conference.

"There can be no better recognition of President Mugabe's commitment to education and his exemplary leadership."

Moyo said the post-graduate university, to be located in Mazowe, 35km outside Harare, would cost $1bn, but he declined to say how the country would afford to pay the sum.

Construction would cost $800m, with $200m for an "endowment fund for research and innovation," Moyo said, adding the university would specialise in science, technology and engineering.