TINASHE MAKICHI
The government has given the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) $30m to kick-start its role as a development financing institution and help local manufacturers, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has said. This comes after IDC is also engaging two prominent regional development finance institutions (names withheld) for a US$50m facility for the same cause.
“We have availed $30 million for the IDC to start playing its actual role of funding the private sector,” Ncube said. “We believe the IDC can play that role, and efforts are also underway to look for further funding for the IDCZ. Zimbabwe should become the manufacturing hub of Africa”.
The IDCZ’s mandate has been to drive industrialisation, but in the past the state investment vehicle diverted and started to run its own companies.
Following a Cabinet resolution that the IDCZ should start providing development finance to industry, the IDCZ approached IDC South Africa for US$20m to kick-start this role.
In 2016, the Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) of the United States Department of Treasury removed IDCZ from the list of sanctions. This boosted the corporation’s prospects of executing its mandate, as the lifting of sanctions had a positive knock-on effect by triggering an unrestricted resumption of business with local, regional, and international suppliers and customers. The lifting of sanctions also enabled a competitive procurement of raw materials. IDCZ has vast investments, covering vehicle assembling, cement and chemical manufacturing, real estate, fertiliser production, edible oils manufacturing, mining, and industrial engineering among many others.
Its mandate is to establish and conduct any industrial undertaking, to facilitate, promote, guide and assist the financing of new industrial undertaking (including small and medium-scale), and schemes for the expansion, better organisation and modernisation of operations of existing industries and industrial undertakings.
