Business

HARARE – Zimbabwe has increased the minimum capital requirements for insurance firms by 233 percent to $5 million from the current $1,5 million, businessdaily has established. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said the upward review of minimum capital requirements for the insurance sector was aimed at improving underwriting capacity and contain insurance business outside the country….

HARARE – Government last week announced it was going to repossess land owned by wines and spirits maker African Distillers (Afdis) and 22 other white-owned farms, a move analysts have condemned as ill-informed and likely to affect investment. Economists who spoke to the businessdaily yesterday said the move was also a contradiction of President Robert…

HARARE – Government is set to gazette a Statutory Instrument (SI) legalising the lifting of the country’s ban on chrome ore exports, a Cabinet minister has said. Mines minister Walter Chidakwa last week said his ministry was in the process of finalising the framework that was going to guide the export of the mineral, two…

HARARE – As the Zimbabwe economy continues to choke, throwing workers onto the streets and companies closing down, there have been a few smiles elsewhere as a result of this carnage. It is the auctioneer who is smiling all the way to the bank. And as fate would have it, some of the banks are…

HARARE – Zimbabwean mobile telecommunication subscribers are set to benefit from lower roaming charges in the region after four Southern African Development Community (Sadc) states agreed to cut international roaming costs. This comes after mobile operators in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe last week arranged to reduce roaming tariffs as part of a pilot roaming…

HARARE – Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed hospitality concern, African Sun, has fired nine managers as the group moves to reduce costs in a difficult operating environment. “In the ongoing pursuit of aligning costs to revenue generation and mitigating against continued financial losses, the board has authorised the management of African Sun Limited to implement further management…

HARARE – An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is expected in the country at the end of this month to review the Staff Monitored Programme (SMP), businessdaily has learnt. IMF country representative Christian Beddies said the delegation would be in the country for a fortnight assessing progress on the programme. “An International Monetary Fund mission…

HARARE – Platinum miner, Mimosa Mine (Mimosa), is set to be paid $57 million owed to it by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) following the tabling of the Debt Assumption Bill in Parliament, the group said. This comes after the central bank raided Mimosa’s Foreign Currency Accounts between 2007-2008 to meet the country’s needs…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s tobacco exports surged to $341 million in the first week of August from the sale of 64 million kilogrammes (kg), compared to $231 million recorded in the corresponding period last year, latest official figures show. The country is expected to export over $600 million worth of tobacco this year, a far cry…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s insurance industry is set to register double digits growth this year — in both the life and non-life sectors — despite deteriorating economic conditions in the country, an international research group has said. Business Monitor International (BMI) in its latest report on Zimbabwe said the life sector will continue to dominate the…