Lovemore Kadzura
Post Reporter
MANICALAND has been given a great opportunity to market its unique investment opportunities to international investors at this year’s UK-Zimbabwe Business Expo to be held in Birmingham tomorrow (Saturday).
The business expo is yet another indication of President Mnangagwa’s engagement and re-engagement drive paying off, as well as his desire to rebuild and make Zimbabwe great again.
Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza is representing the province, while other provinces are either represented by their Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution or Secretaries for Provincial Affairs and Devolution.
The electrifying event will bring together captains of industry, policymakers, and investors from the UK and Zimbabwe.
Minister Mugadza is expected to give exclusive insights into investment opportunities, trade, and the future of Manicaland’s business landscape.
“The atmosphere here is electric. We have been received by a number of colleagues from Zimbabwe at the airport. We’ve heard brief discussions with them pertaining to Saturday’s expo. The enthusiasm is very high. People are willing to invest in their motherland. This is the first of its kind, and we’re expecting things to go extremely well on Saturday as we lay out President Mnangagwa’s blueprint Vision 2030 running alongside the National Development Strategy (NDS)1 and other philosophies that align with Zimbabwe’s development,” said Minister Mugadza.
Manicaland boasts of vast investment opportunities in key sectors such as agriculture, mining, tourism, infrastructure development, manufacturing, education, healthcare, information and technology, renewable energy and construction, among others.
Manicaland, whose provincial capital is Mutare, has a population of around 2 037 million people, according to the 2022 census, and has two major towns – namely Rusape and Chipinge.
The province is endowed with all the five agro-ecological regions, with regions I and II covering 43.62 percent, region III (21.19 percent), and regions IV and V (35.55 percent), thus proffering practice of diversified agriculture.
Average rainfall patterns in the province range from 450-600mm in regions III to V to 750-1000mm per annum in regions I and II.
Manicaland has two official border posts, with Forbes Border Post being the largest and able to handle relatively large volumes of vehicular, human and cargo traffic.
Mutare, by virtue of its proximity to the Beira Port (300km) becomes a strategic in-land dry port, directly connected by road and rail to the Beira sea port; making it is easier and fast to facilitate imports and exports.
Manicaland boosts of vast mineral resources — gold, diamond, phosphate, lithium, vermiculite, tantalite and limestone, among others — while in tourism it is the most scenic, with breath taking views in areas such as Nyanga, Eastern Highlands and Vumba.
There are great opportunities in setting up new hotels, restaurants, international convention centres and sports and night tourism.
There are abundant opportunities in the manufacturing sector as the province boasts of readily available raw materials from forestry, agriculture and mining. Industries such as food processing, furniture manufacturing, geomology centres, lithium batteries manufacturing can also be set up in the province.
Manicaland is leading in terms of hydropower generation and many opportunities await to be utilised on its ever-flowing rivers and dams to generate electricity.
In regions IV and V, there is plenty of sunshine yearning for solar and wind energy investments.
Manicaland has become a firm favourite for both domestic and Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), with the province attracting investments worth over US$1,5 billion in 2023 to ramp up production in economic sectors it has comparative advantage and grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The province has the highest number of business licences issued by Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA).
ZIDA is the country’s sole investment promotion body.
According to the ZIDA report for 2023 released recently, 21 licences were issued to investors in Manicaland, compared to nine issued in 2022.
The 2022 investments in the province were valued at US$34 million, which leaped to US$1,5 billion in 2023 following huge interest in mining, manufacturing and energy, among other critical economic sectors.
