Province primed for investment

Mashonaland West Bureau
Mashonaland West Province hosts one of the biggest mining belts in Africa and experts say there is potential to continue discovering more minerals than the 55 that have been found so far, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) has said.

Addressing delegates at a recently held provincial investment conference in Chinhoyi, ZIA head of operations Mr Sichoni Takoleza said the mineral-rich Great Dyke presently has bountiful platinum and chrome reserves.
“Mashonaland West has one of the fantastic mining belts in the country and continent, the Great Dyke, which has the second-largest reserves of platinum in the world after South Africa’s Bushveld Complex.

“It has 2,8 billion tonnes of chrome. The Great Dyke has copper, gold, vanadium and silver, among others.”
ZIA believes that the province is also primed for agriculture as it lies in Zimbabwe’s greenbelt.
“There is an abundance of fertile land in this province and an abundance of water.

“The country receives 365 days of sunlight, which makes it easy to grow crops.
“Zimbabwe is capable of growing horticultural crops like flowers in eight to nine months of the year, unlike other countries where they can only use six months of the year, and this gives Zimbabwe a competitive edge,” said Mr Takoleza.

He added that tourist attractions in Mashonaland West make the province increasingly attractive to would-be investors.
“In Mashonaland West alone, Zimbabwe has the Chinhoyi Caves and Kariba and there are many ideas that can be employed to boost the tourism industry.

“For instance, an investor from Luxembourg (European country) thought of building a boat hotel stationed at Lake Kariba, which houses 30 people and it is a five-star hotel.
“This particular hotel on a boat is fully booked for the next two years.

“European tourists are normally the ones who visit and stay in the boat,” he said.
ZIA also says the province can leverage on its status as a net wheat producer to add value to the crop.
Takoleza said: “I believe wheat is grown in this province and is exported to Marondera and Harare, where is processed into flour and is imported back here as bread.

“Why can’t the province value add that wheat?
“We should be selling bread to the other parts of Zimbabwe as Mashonaland West and possibly export.”