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Ceaphasi Mutubuki
ONE of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s greatest achievements at the recent African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda was an engagement with one Clare Akamanzi, the chief executive officer of Rwanda Development Board. Akamanzi heads the agency, which is in charge of economic development and creation of an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive in the Rwandese economy.
President Mnangagwa had a wide ranging exchange of ideas with Akamanzi in the presence of Industry Minister Dr Mike Bimha and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Dr Sibusiso Moyo. The two ministers head portfolios that are crucial to bringing in foreign investments into Zimbabwe.
Rwanda Development Board is a one-stop-shop for all investments that come into the country. By default, the agency houses all the instruments that facilitate expeditious establishments of businesses in Rwanda from licensing, registrations, advocacy and business climate. The World Bank ranks Rwanda as the second country in Africa after Mauritius for ease of doing business.
It is not lost on the African continent that Rwanda is just two decades out of a devastating war that reduced it to ruins. The speed with which it is attracting Foreign Direct Investments and asserting itself as the hub of economic prosperity is a marvel to older states that are perennially in financial doldrums.
Zimbabwe too has a similar institution like Rwanda Development Board in the form of Zimbabwe Investment Authority. It is, however, not capacitated to take a leading role in facilitating ease of doing business. Politicians, particularly the Office of The President and Cabinet have been overriding the mandate of the authority for political expediency. As such, Zimbabwe has lost a lot of opportunities due to that interference. During the tenure of former president Robert Mugabe, the country received numerous delegations of investors who were keen to invest, but their interests could not pass the Memorandum of Understanding stages.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote visited Zimbabwe with an aim to establish businesses in the construction sector but balked at the amount of attention politicians showed to his bid. In one day he was boxed from the airport, shuttled between the Office of the President and two Vice Presidents before even seeing the Minister of Industry. In the end, he just left and the country lost an opportunity. It is on that background that President Mnangagwa had an opportunity to learn how Rwanda has separated business and investments from politics.
Zimbabwe has complex procedures that investors have to go through before they are granted licences or concessions to operate. One has to go through six line ministries involving Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Industry and Commerce, Environment and Climate, Local Government and the Office of the President before an application can be processed. This duplication of processes that are done in one office in Rwanda has been feeding the corruption scourge. One minister along the line would stall the process if he/she is not given bribes. Genuine investors have withdrawn from the Zimbabwe economy due to that anomaly. The lessons learnt from Rwanda need to be implemented immediately to woo investors.
In stark contrast to Rwanda, most of the ministers in Zimbabwe are political appointees with no grounding in business, and as such; are not cognisant of the due diligence and roles their offices have to play in creating a stable economy. They have to be removed from the investment chain forthwith and replaced with competent officers.
Amendments to the Indigenisation Act that has scared financing over the years have brought clarity to investors. Institutions like Zimbabwe Investment Authority need to be equipped with competent staff and other roles that were being spread over the Government streamlined to augment the new mantra of Zimbabwe is open for business.
Online Reporter