Business

HARARE – Zimbabwe needs political will to improve the country’s deteriorating business environment, government’s Doing Business Committee (DBC) says. DBC was set up by Industry minister, Mike Bimha, in August to probe factors dampening the country’s ‘ease of doing business’ and come up with recommendations. However, Maureen Chitehwe, DBC chairperson, said “after all has been…

HARARE – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) must liquidate non-core assets to pay off its debts, as government currently does not have capacity to assume it, analysts say. They contend that government — expected to assume the central bank’s $1,1 billion debt, under an RBZ Debt Assumption Bill — is already heavily indebted. “RBZ…

HARARE – Zimbabwe has no proven oil deposits, deputy Mines minister Fred Moyo has said. His remarks come on the back of media reports that the land-locked country could be having oil and gas reserves, according to an exploration exercise performed about two decades ago. However, Moyo — a former managing director of two Zimbabwe…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s energy sector regulator says it is ready to licence new ethanol producers to avoid dependency on a single supplier, Green Fuel (GF). Under the country’s mandatory blending policy, only GF is licensed or accredited to trade the commodity for petrol blending purposes. Gloria Magombo, Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority chief executive, told Business…

HARARE – Budget airline fastjet says its recently launched Dar es Salaam to Harare flights are performing very well. Ed Winter, the company’s chief executive and interim chairperson, said although the route — including others to Lusaka and Entebhe from Dar es Salaam — is in its infancy, “there is every indication that these will…

HARARE – Hard pressed Hwange Colliery Company Limited (Hwange) is seeking new concessions to boost its coal reserves. The listed coal miner — whose losses widened by 154 percent to $7,9 million in the half year to June 2014 from $3,1 million incurred in prior comparable period — said the additional concessions are “critical and…

HARARE – Aquarius Platinum — 50 percent shareholder in Mimosa Mining Company (Mimosa) — has engaged the Zimbabwean government over proposed tax hikes. This comes as the hard pressed President Robert Mugabe-led government has proposed and implemented various tax measures aimed at boosting its revenue inflows. Jean Nel, chief executive of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed…

HARARE – Zimbabwe has the highest taxes in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Labour and Economic Research Institution of Zimbabwe (Leritz) says. The economic think tank said this has left the financially distressed country “limited room to manoeuvre in raising revenues through additional taxes”. “With taxes accounting for 93,9 percent of total revenues during the period January…

HARARE – Embattled construction firm Turnall Holdings (Turnall) is likely to report a full-year loss of $7 million after parent company FBC Holdings’ (FBCH) shareholders unanimously voted to divest from the firm. Herbert Nkala, FBCH chairman last week said the company, which recently parted ways with its managing director John Jere, is expected to turn…