The ManicaPost
Post Reporter
BORN and bred in Mutare, Mr Richard Chiwandire, one of the two recently elected Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries’ national vice-presidents has the sky as the limit.
Having risen up the corporate ladder from an accountant to finance manager at PG Industries between 1992 and 2003, Mr Chiwandire has proved his mettle.
In 2003, he became the finance director of one of the country’s leading producers and marketers of bananas, Matanuska Holdings, a company with a combined turnover of over $15 million, where he is still employed.
Mr Chiwandire who is also a businessman in his own right, an executive director of RAN Mines, the owner of previously G&P Mine gold claims in Bindura among other diverse business ventures, is a household name in the eastern border City of Mutare, not only in the business circles, but also in the sports world, particularly in rugby.
He was among the first black players to play rugby for Mutare Sports Club and served for nearly 10-years as the chairman of the Manicaland Rugby Board. He is now the board’s honorary president.
MRB is the provincial chapter in charge of rugby operating under the Zimbabwe Rugby Union.
In an interview, Mr Chiwandire admitted that when he assumed the post of CZI Manicaland chairman in 2014, he was clueless about his mandate, but took baby-steps and learned the ropes, gaining insights on how to activate his passion into action with tangible results.
Using his 20 years experience in senior finance and administration posts, between 2014 and 2016, Mr Chiwandire successfully organised business meetings and industrial tours as the conduit between local industry and Government.
“I have been on a number of foreign business tours with Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Cde Mandi Chimene and we forged cordial business relations with Mozambique that we are positive will boost trade engagements with provincial captains of industry,” he said, as he explained the potential investment deals lined up for Manicaland.
Last month to add to his recent national appointment, Mr Chiwandires was appointed to serve as a member of the Council for the Manicaland State Universities of Applied Sciences for a period of three years, from June 2017 to June 2020.
Mr Chiwandire said innovation was the only game changer for Zimbabwe’s economic woes.
He gave an example of how they overhauled Matanuska through the land reform programme after 2003, adapting and transforming it to being the prime example of a firm that was able to successfully create value-chain linkages at commercial level.
The company has over 500 previously marginalised small-scale farmers benefiting from its out-grower banana schemes.
Mr Chiwandire as the CZI provincial chairman is also accredited to have fortified ties with Government through the office of the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs.
A provincial business lobby committee that include Government officials, private sector – including universities, churches and civic society, was set up to craft a vision for the province.
“The aim was to see Manicaland leverage on its abundant resources such as agriculture potential, mineral wealth and tourism to contribute in the turnaround of our national economy. We want to see industries that had closed down like Mutare Board and Paper Mills and PG Glass re-opening and in the process creating more jobs for our people,” he said.
He was also vocal about the Special Economic Zones, not only for Manicaland, but other strategic smaller centres throughout the country.
At national level, he said CZI’s main brief was to re-industrialise the country and he believes that Government is heading in the right direction on policy reforms to improve the ease of doing business.
“This is evidenced by the successes of Statutory Instrument 64 and the Command Agriculture programme. Both schemes were targeted at import substitution. This has seen the capacity utilisations of beneficiary company’s shooting up to as much as 90 percent in certain instances, employment numbers and Government revenues also considerably increased and the trade deficit reduced by US$1 billion between 2015 and 2016. We need to work harder towards maintaining and accelerating this momentum.”
He, however, said there was need align to the Southern Africa Development Community industrialisation and Africa Union long term strategic development agendas that extend to year 2063.
“Our businesspeople must be pro-active to these and must capitalise on the opportunities,” said Mr Chiwandire.
