ZIDA eyes US$3bn investments this year

Sunday Mail Correspondent

THE Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) is targeting to attract US$3 billion worth of investments into the country this year.

Since 2020, ZIDA has approved public-private partnerships (PPPs) worth over US$4 billion, with some of the projects having already taken off.

The agency’s chief executive officer, Mr Tafadzwa Chinamo, told The Sunday Mail that there has been huge interest from foreign investors.

“We have had examples of foreign-owned mines located far away from the grid partnering a private company to draw electricity or run a line that is in some cases 100km away, and most of them are actually foreign investors. In total, we are targeting about US$3 billion in investment, including direct investments and PPPs. This is money being invested into the economy by existing investors,” he said.

PPPs, Mr Chinamo said, were a major contributor to investments made into the country.

“Since ZIDA was established, we are looking at 21 PPPs that are currently operational and, in terms of value, we are looking at US$4 billion.

“Because of funding constraints from Treasury, the appetite has gone up, so I would say in the next few years, we will have much more than that,” he said.

“PPPs, in terms of size and value, represent the biggest segment of investment, because a typical PPP requires massive infrastructure; for example, a dam for a hydro-power plant, a highway from Harare to Beitbridge, but those are the sort of investments we want.”

The agency is currently working on expediting operationalisation of more high-value investments.

As a result, due diligence would be carried out on all PPPs to ensure public entities are not duped or taken advantage of.

“It is very important that we make sure that we do not just approve all PPPs.

“Few local authorities or parastatals have money to expand and a lot of them cannot borrow because their balance sheets are weak, but we try to protect them from predatory private parties who see that they are desperate,” he said.