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Zimbabwe
- Zimbabwe is experiencing crippling power outages characterized by black-outs that can extend to as much as 19 hours a day.
- The electricity shortage is now common place with South Africa recently announcing Stage 6 power cuts.
- The debt capital markets, specifically the issuance of green bonds is a possible solution to rolling black-outs.
Zimbabwe is in the middle of a power crisis that can be attributed to the low water levels at the country’s Kariba Dam which has in times past been used to supplement the country’s power needs. Power outages are a part of every day living in the country.
However, the latest power crisis seems to be more intense threatening to scupper economic growth. Businesses and citizens have had to adjust to erratic power supply schedules. It is now commonplace for people to wake up at midnight to iron their clothes and use their electric appliances as this …
Oliver Chidawu had been the founding shareholder of an outfit called Heritage Investment Bank, and Douglas Munatsi was the founder of First Merchant Bank. Chidawu, in that period, also acquired a substantial portfolio of shares of companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. His portfolio comprised furniture retail and manufacturing companies as well as the manufacture and distribution of agricultural inputs.
In the 2000s, Chidawu was at his zenith. He had a portfolio of thriving businesses and had board seats on several Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed companies like ABC Holdings Limited, Zimplow Limited, and Bindura Nickel Corporation.
Things started to go badly in the 2010s. Chidawu had made an unsuccessful expansion of his construction outfit to the United Kingdom. A difficult business environment coupled with expensive and unsustainable loans saw the businessman lose some of his prized interests.…
As Africa’s role in the global economy continues to garner prominence, it’s imperative for the continent to seal the gaping hole in its power supply.
Lack of universal power access remains a major roadblock that has retrogressed industrialization and socio-economic development. Statistics from the World Bank indicate that Africa remains the least electrified region in the world, with 568 million people lacking access to electricity.
The Bretton Woods institution, further notes that the Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of the global population without electricity, jumped to 77 per cent in 2020 from 71 per cent in 2018, whilst most regions saw declines in their share of access deficits. It has become a Hobson’s choice for African governments to prioritize the power sector, which is the epicenter of industrialization, working towards Goal 7 of the UN SDGs; which advocates for universal access to affordable, reliable and modern electricity services.
Currently, Africa’s power is …
- Zimbabwe to introduce electronic courts early next month, with all the partners trained and geared to embrace the development.
- President Emmerson Mnangagwa is to officially commission the newly-established Commercial Court division of the High Court the same week.
- The theme for 2022, as announced by Chief Justice Luke Malaba is Use of Technology to Enhance Efficiency and the Rule of Law in the Judiciary.
Zimbabwe is set to introduce electronic courts (e-courts) starting May 1, 2022. E-courts will be introduced in line with new technologies and the need for efficiency in the delivery of justice with consistency and collective effort by all justice delivery players. The key advantages include bringing in a justice serving mechanism that is transparent, efficient, affordable, time-saving, protects the interests of witnesses, reduces the backlog of pending cases, and most importantly reduces the number of unscrupulous activities. The announcement was made through Statutory Instrument (SI) 78, …
- Zimbabwe Stock Exchange profiles the Agriculture and Exchange Traded Fund indices introduced on April 1, 2022.
- The Introduction of sectoral indices followed the adoption of the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS).
- The settlement base values for both indices were placed at 100 but ZSE ETF index back-test to January 1, 2022.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has profiled two more sector indices, the Agriculture and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) indices. The profiles of the indices are with effect from April 1, 2022. This brings the total number of sectoral indices to ten while total market indices add to fifteen. The Agriculture index, tracks the performance of companies in the agricultural sector. The ETF index is tailor made to measure the trading performance of the three listed ETFs. In separate announcements, the ZSE said that the base value for the two indices was 100, but the ETF index back-test to January …
Strive Masiyiwa, the executive chairman of Econet Wireless International has attained an almost mythical status in Zimbabwean and African corporate lore.
Fortune Magazine describes him this way:
…“Masiyiwa’s entrepreneurship has had a major impact in Zimbabwe, his home nation, and on the African economy more generally. Econet, the telecommunications firm he launched in the 1990s, helped pioneer mobile loans and cashless payments on the continent, sparking a wave of adoption that has expanded economic well-being for millions of unbanked people in Africa—while also helping Masiyiwa become a billionaire. Now based in London, Masiyiwa is a board member at Unilever and Netflix, among other big Western companies—helping each do business in Africa with local development needs in mind.
But his most urgent current role is as the African Union’s special envoy in charge of acquiring the materials to fight Covid-19. Masiyiwa spearheaded the creation of the African Medical Supply Platform (AMSP),
Once again, Heijin was at the centre of another dispute. This time around, it was displacing more villagers in Murehwa. Murehwa is a village in Mashonaland East province.
This time around, it affected up to 100 families. As with the example above, the company received a special mining grant to mine black granite in the area. The mining claim sits on a densely populated place covering between 200 & 300 hectares.
Due to the presence of granite in the area, Chinese companies are laying siege on the province. All this to get their hands on the rare and lucrative stone. Heijin’s newest intrusion follows another bloody battle between Mutoko and Shanghai Haoying Mining Investments villagers.
They have claims to mine black granite, which was. At the same time, Shanghai Haoying has compensated households who would lose their home due to mining activities. The Chinecompany’sy’s plans to establish operations in the …
If you received your salary on the 1st of January in ZWL, you would struggle to pay for goods and services in February. This volatile situation results in consumers seeing value eroded from their bank balances at an astonishing rate.
We see wages struggle to keep up with inflation, a phenomenon similar to 2008. Most people buy USD from the black market to retain some semblance of value in these balances.
Zimbabwe has a currency crisis, and the Authorities seem to be struggling to deal with it. The rate at which the Zimbabwe dollar is depreciating signifies the state of the economy. Much of this is being blamed on the countries foreign currency auction system.…
The company has been in existence for about 130 years and in that period amassed a substantial portfolio of businesses that comprise hospitality, food retail, agriculture, and security services. The large size of the company and dominance in the markets made it a darling of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
At the height of its conglomerate strategy, the company owned everything from food retailers, department stores, a cotton printing company, tea estates, and a bank. Meikles was even called Kingdom Meikles Africa during its short-lived with Kingdom Financial Holdings.
The company divested its financial services interest in a demerger after an acrimonious shareholder and boardroom dispute and so began the drive to refocus its business activities around its core businesses namely retail, hospitality, security services, real estate, and agriculture. Meikles recently announced that it would be discontinuing its mining activities.…
