Zimbabwe has conducive investment climate— Dangote Group
NIGERIAN multinational industrial conglomerate, Dangote Group, has expressed confidence in the Second Republic and renewed its interest in exploring new investment opportunities in the country citing improved business environment.
Founded by Nigerian business magnate and billionaire Mr Aliko Dangote, Dangote Group is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent.
Mr Dangote visited the country in 2015 and expressed interest in power generation, coal mining and cement production.
During that time, it was said the company was interested in building a US$400 million cement plant, but the plan did not come to fruition, a development largely blamed on bureaucracy prevalent under the previous government.
With the new dispensation under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, Dangote Group is optimistic that they are going to move on smoothly and explore investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy.
Under the Second Republic, Zimbabwe’s investment climate has immeasurably improved, resulting in investors interested in exploring opportunities in the country.
President Mnangagwa
In an interview on the sidelines of the Connect Africa Symposium during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo last week, Dangote Group executive director, Engineer Mansur Ahmed said investment prospects in Zimbabwe, driven by the Government’s thrust of pursuing investor friendly policies, have led to the conglomerate keen on investing in the country.
“We have always kept our eye on Zimbabwe because we see tremendous business opportunities in many areas. We did approach the Government some years back, but things didn’t work, but we are now continuing to explore investment opportunities because the new Government is now opening up more trade and investment opportunities,” he said.
“We are seeing more policies and regulations that promote investments as well as opening up new opportunities and therefore to that extent, we think we will continue to discuss and explore these opportunities with relevant authorities.”
Eng Ahmed, who is also the president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, said they met the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida) and agreed to look at different sectors of the economy for investment.
“I can assure you that if we find a good opportunity especially now that our focus is on expanding intra-Africa trade, we are confident that we will find opportunities in Zimbabwe. We are looking at exploring new ways of promoting investment and economic trade in Zimbabwe through building relationships with Zida that we hope will create more opportunities,” he said.
“Zimbabwe has a conducive environment for investment. Although we are actually interested in establishing a cement manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe because there are raw materials in terms of limestone deposits, we think there are many other opportunities in Zimbabwe such as in sectors like agriculture and mining. At the moment we are looking at different sectors and we are in discussion with some Government agencies.”
Engineer Mansur Ahmed Nunes
In the event that Dangote opens, a cement manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe, it will be its 11th across Africa as it expands its footprint on the continent.
Eng Ahmed said their flagship business, the Dangote cement business has footprints in 14 African countries. The actual investment in cement plants is in 10 countries. Dangote Cement is Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest cement company with a production capacity of 48,6 million tons a year across 10 countries.
The company has cement plants in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, and Cameroon. — The Chronicle
