HARARE – Divesified group Innscor Africa Limited (Innscor) plans to invest $50 million towards expansion of its footprint, chief executive Tom Brown said. Brown said approximately $38 million of the funds would be spent on its bakeries, fast food outlets, pork-processing business Colcom and some on refrigerator manufacturer — Capri. “We are going to continue…
HARARE – Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed sugar producer Tongaat Hullet’s 50,3 percent-owned Zimbabwean operation, Hippo Valley Estates (Hippo), says its Successful Rural Sugarcane Farming Community (Susco) programme is half-complete. “Seven thousand one hundred hectares have been ploughed out and replanted and this equates approximately to 47 percent of the total area that has been allocated to…
HARARE – Togo-based transnational banking group Ecobank says it remains open to new acquisition opportunities in Zimbabwe. “We have a flexible strategy, we don’t rule out anything. If an opportunity presents itself to acquire a bank, we will look at it,” said Arnold Ekpe, Ecobank group chief executive. “You might not know but as a…
HARARE – Zimbabwean cigarette smokers have burnt more than $70 million worth of cigarettes. According to a recent press report, Savanna Tobacco says of the 4,5 billion cigarette sticks produced last year, close to 1,8 billion were consumed locally. If a 20-cigarette packet costs an average of $0,80 in most retail outlets which translate to…
HARARE – The Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF) says there is need to capacitate small scale miners to ensure the attainment of the projected double-digit growth in the mining industry and to curb rampant gold smuggling. The local mining industry which is anticipated to play a critical role in the resurgence of the local economy is…
HARARE – Zimbabwe Finance minister Tendai Biti on Monday said more than $20 billion was needed for infrastructure projects such as road and rail networks and to fully kick-start the re-emerging mining industry. “The thirst for capital in our country is huge and high,” Biti said at a ceremony to unveil a $64,3 million credit…
HARARE – Local companies which constitute half of Zesa Holdings (Zesa)’s $600 million debtors’ book are struggling to pay their power bills, group chief executive Josh Chifamba said. He said the corporate world, which is struggling to secure capital and still recovering from a decade of hyperinflation and economic stagnation, owes the power utility $300…
HARARE – The country must establish a credit bureau to avoid malpractices in the banking sector, Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (Baz) president George Guvamatanga said. Speaking at the Zimbabwe High-level Economic Forum in Victoria Falls, Guvamatanga said banks did not have the aptitude to determine loan defaulters so there was need to establish a platform…
HARARE – Zimbabwe should concentrate on strengthening the multiple-currency regime if real economic growth is to be achieved, economists say. Vitaliy Kramarenko, a centre coordinator with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said introduction of the multicurrency system brought significant stability in the country hence the need to retain it. “Zimbabwe should strengthen the multi-currency to…
HARARE – Government should urgently recapitalise the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to bring stability and fairness in the banking sector, Bankers of Association of Zimbabwe (Baz) president George Guvamatanga says. “The starting point of financial services stability is a stronger and well capitalised central bank,” he told the Zimbabwe High-Level Economic Forum in Victoria…
