THE National Venture Capital Company of Zimbabwe (NVCCZ) has extended financial support to 15 companies across the country as the Government moves to address the lack of patient and cheap capital to re-tool industry.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce 2027 Strategic Planning Workshop held in Bulawayo on Friday, NVCCZ chief executive officer, Mr Tino Kambasha, said the fund was established after the Government realised industry was struggling to access affordable long-term financing.
“The Industrial Development Fund has come online this year and we are pleased to report back to the nation that we have invested in 15 companies.
“The reason why the fund was set up is because the Government of Zimbabwe realised that there was an issue. There is no patient money and there is no cheap money to help re-industrialise and re-tool industry,” said Mr Kambasha.
He said the fund was set up by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and is managed by the NVCCZ, which sits under the Ministry of Finance.
“The 15 companies we funded are across different sectors – transport, agro-processing, silicate manufacturing, leather tannery and so forth and we’ve spread the fund throughout the provinces and we’ve tried to really keep a devolution theme of this and to make sure that there are people who are not going to be left behind in any different province,” he said.
Mr Kambasha said the Fund is managing the resources with accountability to taxpayers and Government.
“This year was a start and I think we’re managing it very well in terms of being accountable to the taxpayers, being accountable to the ministries that have given us this privilege of managing this fund and we look forward to re-tooling and re-developing Zimbabwe,” he said.
Responding to questions on what Bulawayo has benefited, Mr Kambasha said the city has received the majority of the funding deployed so far, with a focus on food security ahead of a projected drought.
“Bulawayo actually has the majority of the funding that we’ve deployed and we have deployed this funding in areas, which we think are key sectors. So, we are now going into a drought, so we think food and milling is key,” he said. “Three companies that we’ve funded are into food and milling.
We’ve also funded agro-processing in the area as well.”
While Bulawayo has been a major beneficiary, the official clarified that the Fund was national in scope and has been deployed as far as Tsholotsho in line with the devolution agenda.
“We feel that because it’s a national fund, we need to be very deployed. We’re even as far as Tsholotsho. So, it’s not just Bulawayo Province by itself, but we are even as far as Tsholotsho where we have deployed funds,” he said.
The NVCCZ is one of Government’s instruments under the re-industrialisation drive aimed at reviving manufacturing capacity and value addition.
One of the 15 companies that benefited from the fund, is agro-based business, Buntu, which started in 2015 doing small grains processing.
“We happen to be one of the beneficiaries for the ZVCCZ Fund, which helped us a lot in terms of actually capacitating us in the machinery side where we’re doing straight milling. But those machines, when they come in now, will help us a lot in terms of increasing the volumes,” said the company in a recorded video shared with delegates.
“These will help us also do some other products in terms of capacitating the company. We’re doing contract farming in Tsholotsho and in Binga where we have got 1 200 farmers so far that are actually benefiting from this project.
“We were actually doing about 70 tons in a year, but we’ve received more than 200 tons of grain.
“We’ve got many areas that we’re actually going to incorporate other than Tsholotsho and Binga.
We’ve got Bubi and Buhera coming into the project. All those will benefit indirectly from the employment.”-herald
