Online Reporter
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Senior Business Reporter
Zimbabwe has extended its priorities beyond simply attracting investment to converting licenced projects into funded, operational and sustainable businesses, the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency says.
Chief executive officer Mr Tafadzwa Chinamo said Zimbabwe is generating strong investor interest, particularly in manufacturing, but warned that the value of projects in the investment pipeline should not be confused with capital already deployed into the economy.
Addressing delegates at the 6th ZimReal Property Investment Forum, Mr Chinamo said the next phase of Zimbabwe’s investment strategy requires stronger collaboration between the Government, investors, financiers, development institutions and professional service providers to ensure projects move from licensing to implementation.
“Zimbabwe continues to generate investment interest,” he said.
“However, these figures also sharpen an important distinction. The projected investments represent potential contained within the investment pipeline. It is not the same as capital already deployed.”
His remarks come as the Southern African country is looking to deepen industrialisation, increase productive capacity and attract capital into sectors capable of generating jobs, exports and stronger domestic value chains.
Mr Chinamo said investment in manufacturing was particularly important because it can support value addition, beneficiation, import substitution and export growth.
He said ZIDA’s role is increasingly evolving from simply promoting Zimbabwe as an investment destination towards ensuring that projects already attracted were successfully implemented.
“Our priority, therefore, increasingly is to convert this growing pipeline into actual investment,” Mr Chinamo said.
“This means understanding where licensed projects are within the implementation cycle, identifying the constraints delaying capital deployment and working with investors, Government institutions, financial institutions and development partners to address these problems.”
According to Mr Chinamo, the central question for Zimbabwe is no longer simply how to attract more investors.
“The question, therefore, is no longer simply how do we attract more investment? Increasingly, it is how do we convert the investments we attract into funded, operational and sustainable projects?” he said.
“This represents ZIDA’s deliberate progression from investment promotion towards investment conversion.”
The shift places greater emphasis on what happens after a project receives an investment licence, including whether its sponsors can secure financing, complete feasibility studies, obtain the necessary regulatory approvals and ultimately commence operations.
Mr Chinamo said many projects encountered financing constraints well before they reached the point where commercial investors could commit funds.
“At the concept stage, many projects lack resources for further preparation. At the feasibility stage, sponsors face the cost of technical studies, environmental assessments, financial modelling and legal structure,” he said.
He added that financing challenges could continue through financial close and implementation if projects were not matched with appropriate financing structures.
The implication, he said, was that Zimbabwe needed to develop a stronger pipeline of investment-ready and bankable projects rather than simply increasing the number of investment proposals.
“This requires, obviously, credible feasibility studies. Sound financial models, appropriate legal and commercial structures. Reliable project and market data,” Mr Chinamo said.
He said clear revenue arrangements, effective risk allocation and credible project sponsors are equally important because these fundamentals give financiers and investors the confidence to commit capital.
The ZIDA chief executive said different projects also require different forms of capital, meaning that a one-size-fits-all approach to investment financing does not adequately address Zimbabwe’s development needs.
Infrastructure projects, he said, require long-term financing, while industrial projects may need combinations of equity, debt, working capital and equipment finance.
Strategic projects, meanwhile, could require development finance and risk mitigation instruments before commercial capital could participate at scale.
“The objective must therefore be to connect the right project with the right capital at the right stage of development,” Mr Chinamo said.
He cited blended finance as one mechanism that could help bridge some of the financing gaps confronting projects, particularly those with significant developmental benefits but risks that commercial lenders might initially be reluctant to assume.
A combination of development finance, appropriately structured Government support, commercial capital and institutional capital can allow risks to be allocated more effectively.
ZIDA, he said, is prepared to act as a connecting platform between projects, government and capital.
Chinamo identified four areas where collaboration can accelerate project implementation: building a valuable project pipeline, strengthening project development and preparation financing, improving investment data and transparency, and developing investable public-private partnership structures.
He said Zimbabwe frequently received enquiries from investors seeking investment-ready opportunities, including investors from the Middle East with significant pools of capital.
“What can I invest in? I’ve got money, I’m in the Middle East, we’ve got so much money, what can we invest in?” Mr Chinamo quoted investors as saying.
The challenge is therefore to ensure that promising projects systematically progress from concept to investment readiness and from financial close to implementation.
He said project preparation financing is particularly important because feasibility studies, environmental assessments, technical work, transaction advisory services, legal structuring and financial modelling all require funding.
“There is therefore an opportunity to explore project preparation facilities or project development funds supported by governments, DFIs, banks, corporates and other development partners,” he said.
Mr Chinamo also stressed the importance of reliable investment data, saying capital was more likely to follow credible information.
“Capital follows credible information,” he said, adding that investors required reliable pipeline information, consistent reporting, transparent project structures and credible data.
Stronger project tracking mechanisms also enable Government institutions to identify implementation constraints early and intervene where facilitation is required.
Mr Chinamo said ZIDA is ready to work with government, development partners, financial institutions, institutional investors, corporates and project sponsors to identify opportunities, package projects, facilitate investor entry and resolve implementation challenges.
He said the ultimate measure of Zimbabwe’s investment success should not be the number or projected value of projects licensed.
“Zimbabwe’s investment success will ultimately be measured not only by the number or projected value of investments licensed but by the capital deployed, industries established, infrastructure delivered, jobs created, exports generated and value obtained within the economy,” he said.
For Zimbabwe, that shift represents a significant change in emphasis, from counting investment commitments to measuring their economic impact.
Mr Chinamo said mobilising private capital into productive sectors could help transform financing gaps into investable opportunities and turn national development ambitions into tangible outcomes.
“We believe that together we can move from potential to prosperity,” he said.
