The Sunday News
THERE is no doubt that Zimbabwe is among the top destinations for investors as most of its sectors still have huge potential which can bring returns to any serious investor.
The focus over the years has been on how to attract Foreign Direct Investment to unlock this potential.
This thinking has always been built around the notion that most local people do not have the huge capital outlay needed to venture into most of these capital intensive projects.
In fact according to the bookish analysts the only way this country can be revived economically is through bringing in some rich foreigners to pump money into the projects.
This could be true to some extent but somehow as a country we have tended to take a linear thinking and forgot to see and exploit an open opportunity presented by Zimbabweans who are working in the diaspora.
Zimbabwe lost a huge chunk of its skilled and unskilled workforce to many countries in the last decade as many local companies were closing due to economic challenges.
In the first few years, the majority of these people in the diaspora were focusing immediately on sending money back home to sustain the needs of their families.
Those who were earning extra money started building structures like houses and starting business projects but only on a small scale to support their families.
Although the money was coming in at family level, statistics show that people in the diaspora have become a huge source of liquidity in the country.
According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe the country received $840 million from the diaspora community last year up from $790 million in 2013.
This year, the central bank expects the figure to reach $1 billion. This is money coming in through the formal channels and considering that many people also use informal channels the figure could be higher.
However, Government is yet to come up with a clear policy that can effectively harness the money to support huge projects in the country.
In his 2015 national budget statement, Finance and Economic Development Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa said the Government recognised the formidable role the diaspora had in national development and noted that a National Diaspora Policy was being finalised to tap into this critical source of liquidity.
There has been a feeling that people in the diaspora were not being incentivised enough to ensure that they can plough back into major projects in the country and become major players in reviving the economy.
It seems, however, some people in the diaspora have realised that it is not worthy to just sit on the fence and watch as the Government runs across the globe looking for foreigners to invest in our country when in fact they can do the same.
Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Cde Fred Moyo told delegates who attended the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce annual congress in Victoria Falls on Friday that a group of Zimbabwean professionals working with some locals had secured $40 million and were willing to invest in struggling gold mines Sabi, Jena and Beatrice.
This is a huge statement as the group is said to be composed of around 5 000 people. For such a huge number of people to co-ordinate and agree to such a huge step in trying to help their country shows that Zimbabweans can work together for the good of the country.
“They have almost done everything they came and did due diligence with the engineers. They are finalising an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with ZMDC to form a joint venture.
“You can imagine we were battling with Asian investors who were struggling to put in $30 million into our gold mines while there are Zimbabweans who are able to put $40 million to $50 million because they are bankable out there and can raise the funding,” he said.
This move also vindicates President Mugabe who has always called on Zimbabweans to start seeing themselves as employers and not just employees.
President Mugabe has been asking why locals seem to be doing well as managers but fail to come up and combine their expertise so that they can run some of the companies.
This group, which composes mainly professionals in the mining sector, seems to be among the first to heed President Mugabe’s call.
While we celebrate this milestone, we must also prick ourselves on the forehead and ask why it has taken this long to realise that the diaspora can be the solution to the much-needed investment in the country.
Simply, the answer is that over the years we have not come up with a clear policy on how to tap into the diaspora community.
We need to come up with a policy to encourage Zimbabweans outside to invest in the country.
They all say home is best and we think that all those Zimbabweans who have managed to save some money from their jobs outside the country would need to come back home one day as businesspeople.
As a country we need to start to think and come up with a clear black and white policy to show that these are our sisters and brothers and we welcome them and their investment with open arms.
We cannot subject them to the same hassles that foreigners go through and we feel Government must urgently come up with a policy that will see Zimbabweans in the diaspora participate more in reviving the economy.
This way even foreigners will follow suit if they realise that the owners of the country are leading in the race.
