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Zimbabwe’s first formal attempt since the turn of the millenium to harness resources from its citizens working abroad was in February 2005 when the Reserve Bank set up Homelink.The facility was meant to mobilise foreign currency remittances from the Diaspora and invest in real estate development. It did well to some degree to ease the acute shortage of foreign currency then and create employment at construction sites.
Some six years later, the government issued a $50 million Diaspora bond. Reports say it was well subscribed, encouraging authorities to issue another. Finance Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa announced in November a plan to issue another bond targeting exiles again.
We also have the Zimbabwean Human Capital project. It has a website that serves as a window for skilled Zimbabweans to register and create profiles that can be used by potential employers. In fact, the platform is more than a job market as it also allows for the engagement of professionals in the Diaspora for their contribution towards the economic and social development of Zimbabwe. Information on investment opportunities for new and existing businesses is also provided.
These three are essentially what we have had as formal approaches to getting the Diaspora contribute to economic recovery and growth. Homelink was an attempt to engage them for their money as in the case of bonds. The human capital initiative is a combination of their money for those who choose to remain abroad and their skills for those planning to come back; an effort to regain after the brain drain since 2000.
We now see a renewed effort, as the Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Professor Jonathan Moyo said on Thursday night. Speaking at the Bulawayo Press Club, Prof Moyo said government is crafting policies to attract skilled Zimbabweans to come back home to work. Government, he added, recognises the Diaspora as a possible source of funding, which can assist in achieving the goals set out in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.
Many Zimbabweans are returning home already, encouraged by greater economic stability. Some are taking up jobs while others are getting into business.
Presenting the monetary policy statement recently, RBZ acting governor Charity Dhliwayo said Diaspora remittances were $1,8 billion last year, down from $2,1 billion in 2012. These are significant sums of money that, if invested properly, can help drive the economy. A more focused approach towards mobilising savings must yield more.
“We didn’t have this notion of Diaspora as a positive thing,” Prof Moyo said. “We took the position that these asylum seekers are running away and embarrassing their country. But these guys now constitute a whole critical strategic population called Zimbabweans in the Diaspora with experience, and some with resources. The most important experience they have is the knowledge advantage and it’s rooted in the education they got here.”
The potential of the African Diaspora to contributing to the continent’s development is well known but the difficulty has been the uncoordinated nature of the engagement, mistrust and economic instability in some African countries. The three factors are especially true for Zimbabwe. First, we do not really have that platform dedicated towards reaching out to our compatriots in foreign lands.
That missing link would, however, be secured with the formalisation for dialogue with the Diaspora through the Zimbabwe Diaspora Home Interface Programme.
The second difficulty is that the movement of locals to foreign countries, Britain, Canada, America, Australia and South Africa was framed as a flight from political repression. To secure a visa to travel or stay in UK one had to spin a story of political violence, even as many of us knew the statements were lies.
Prof Moyo highlights this point, that there was substantial mistrust which made it difficult for government to assuredly ask citizens abroad to return or invest at home. After telling lies to secure the right to stay, the exiles had that guilty conscience that government could punish them if they returned or remitted their money using formal channels.
The economic instability of the past decade discouraged the Diaspora from beginning to think about returning or setting up big investments.
However, the economy is stable now, which is a plus to the emerging engagement. Going forward, we hope the economy would begin to make it possible for employers to pay higher salaries which are comparable to those Diasporans are earning. General conditions, particularly infrastructure — roads, energy supply and so on — also need to improve for us to attract an engineer, who has not driven into a pothole in the 14 years he has been away; who does not remember when he stopped the machines because of an unscheduled power cut.
The mistrust is dying off on its own as the political force, MDC, that provided it the impetus to it is collapsing. A formal structure to stay in touch will soon be in place, as Cde Chinamasa said.
Generally, it is promising.
Online Reporter