IDCZ plans first-ever Continental Bank in Zimbabwe

IN a move set to revolutionise the business landscape in the country and across the African region, the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) Limited is in the process of establishing the first-ever Continental Bank in Zimbabwe.

The move is expected to help local industries advance technologically and forge partnerships with industries worldwide.

IDCZ general manager, Mr Edward Tome, revealed this in Masvingo at a recent presentation at a joint Parliamentary Portfolio Committees Workshop.

“We will be introducing to the market possibly this year the first Continental Bank wholly owned by Zimbabwe,” said Mr Tome.

“The industry and commerce department is coming to empower and capacitate Zimbabweans and grow this economy in order to fulfil the mandate to industrialise.”

IDCZ is a development financial institution and the proposed establishment of a continental bank is part of its broader mandate to industrialise Zimbabwe and expand the existing firms in the country towards sustainable development as espoused in the National Development Strategy (NDS1).

In an interview, the IDCZ head of corporate services, Mr Derek Sibanda, said they were at an advanced stage in establishing the bank. “We are in a process where we have submitted an application and we are hopeful it will tick all the boxes, paving the way for the bank’s launch and the commencement of its financing operations,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said the project is poised to be a game-changer for the country’s industrial sector, unlocking new opportunities for growth, investment, and economic development.

“As part of the mandate of IDCZ Limited, which is to industrialise, expand existing industries and resuscitate industries through ways of financing such as availing working capital and capital expenditure to industries well known in Zimbabwe with industries that require the much-needed working capital for them to retool and also leapfrog and use new technologies that our industries are able to compete with other industries in the world,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said the IDCZ’s objective is to provide the much-needed financial support for industries across Zimbabwe.

“The IDCZ is trying to operationalise a regional development finance bank that will oversee issues of financing for industries and it will operate along the lines of IDB and it will revolutionarise industrialisation in terms of financing so that we have appropriate finance, the patient capital that industry requires,” he said.

Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda was part of the participants at the joint Portfolio Committees Induction Workshop on Industry and Commerce and Thematic Committee on Indigenisation and Empowerment, which ended on Monday at Great Zimbabwe Hotel in Masvingo. —chronicle