ZIBC targets investment opportunities for the Diaspora
THE Zimbabwe Investment Business Community (ZIBC), comprising prospective Zimbabwean investors based outside the country, will tomorrow host its pre-launch meeting to raise awareness to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to consider investing back home.
The meeting, to be held virtually, comes on the back of President Mnangagwa’s call for Zimbabweans living abroad to take up investment opportunities in several economic programmes taking place in the economy.
ZIBC, a brainchild of Dr Ian Henney and other Zimbabweans in the Diaspora was set up in 2021 to encourage investment from Zimbabweans living outside the country.
The business grouping has indicated that it intends to constantly engage with the Diaspora community to “construct and maintain” a healthy economic relationship back home.
Dr Henney said the group was formed for all Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who were considering investing back home or looking forward to starting businesses in Zimbabwe.
“As Zimbabweans based abroad, we have acquired many skills and knowledge and for those who just want to return home but do not know where to start, ZIBC has been formed with that in mind,” said Dr Henney.
“This group is an apolitical group and purely for those wishing to pursue their business goals. Zimbabwe is endowed with resources, minerals, land, human resources.
“However, most of us cannot access these, hence the need to be a part of something and have a greater voice that unlocks doors and creates opportunities for us all.
“This group is for Zimbabweans from all walks of life. Feel free to interact, discuss business to your heart’s content, seal deals, and discuss ideas of how best we can help the motherland return to its old glory. It is strictly business,” Dr Henney added. Besides benefiting from remittances, countries globally have used Diaspora investments
to develop their nations in areas such as infrastructure.
There have been strategic efforts to get the Zimbabwean Diaspora community across the globe to return home and help chart the country’s economic future through promotion of various socio- economic and business initiatives. Lately, Zimbabwe has been crafting homegrown solutions to revitalise its economic recovery and there is strong belief that
this may not be achieved without the support of the Zimbabwe Diaspora community.
Value addition and beneficiation in the mining sector, new industries in special economic zones, agro-processing and manufacturing are some of the business opportunities available in Zimbabwe for investors in the Diaspora. Locals living outside the country contribute immensely to poverty reduction, development, reconstruction, and economic
growth of countries of origin.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have provided new opportunities for (African) Diaspora involvement, following the partly missed targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that preceded them.-The Herald
