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Zim goes for Dangote

01 Jan, 2017 - 00:01 0 Views
Zim goes for Dangote Aliko Dangote

The Sunday Mail

Legal and regulatory requirements met
More investment inquiries from Europe

Lincoln Towindo
A high-powered Government team comprising geologists and investment promotion experts will in the next two weeks leave for Nigeria to meet Africa’s richest billionaire Mr Aliko Dangote to put final touches to his proposed billion-dollar investments in Zimbabwe.The team, which includes officials from the Ministries of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion; Mining and Mining and Mining Development; Finance and Economic Development; Zimbabwe Investment Authority and the Zimbabwe Geological Survey, is expected to meet with Mr Dangote in the next two weeks to finalise agreements on setting up his business locally.

The development comes after Government addressed legal and technical obstacles around ease of setting up and doing business that had stalled progress on the project.

The Sunday Mail understands that Mr Dangote had made specific requests from Government, which includes exemptions from specific legal and regulatory conditions required to set up a business in Zimbabwe.

Africa’s richest man, Mr Aliko Dangote, visited Zimbabwe in August, 2015 and met President Mugabe at State House where he expressed interest in setting-up a 1,5 million tonne per annum cement manufacturing facility, a coal mine and a power plant in the country.

The projects are valued at US$1,2 billion; with US$500 million being poured into cement making, US$400 million for electricity generation, and US$300 million targeted for coal mining.

Already Dangote Group has set up Dangote Cement Zimbabwe, which is operating under holding company Dangote Zimbabwe, and has secured an investment license and registered with the Registrar of Companies.

The company has received nearly all relevant statutory clearances.

The projects are now set to take off the ground after Government met its side of the bargain by refining some legal and regulatory requirements that were perceived to be constraining the proposed investments.

A senior Government official told The Sunday Mail that the recent enactment of the Special Economic Zones Act had injected renewed impetus into the Dangote deals with authorities now confident that the new regulations under the Act will expedite the finalisation of the deals.

The Zimbabwean delegation is expected to appraise Mr Dangote and his team on measures Government has put in place to facilitate ease of setting up and operating businesses in Zimbabwe.

Government has also set up the One-Stop-Shop Investment Centre, which will expedite the setting up of the proposed companies. The OSS investment centre is an arm of ZIA tasked with reducing the time for approving investment projects from 49 to three days.

Secretary in the Ministry of Investment Promotion Dr Desire Sibanda said: “Government has set up a team to resuscitate the Dangote deals, which will be visiting the Nigerian early next (this) month.

“We are following up on the investment he promised and a team comprising officials from our ministry; the Ministries of Finance; Mining; ZIA; Geological Survey and other relevant Ministries will be dispatched to meet with Mr Dangote.

“The team will travel to meet Mr Dangote and appraise him on developments around the investment climate in Zimbabwe, which has changed dramatically since he visited Zimbabwe in 2015.

“Basically the investment deals were being stalled by certain assurances the Nigerians had requested which included exemptions from certain legal, all of which we have resolved now. “They were talking about operating in Special Economic Zones, which as you know have now been legislated and will be operational soon.

“Now the team is going to appraise them on this development, the enactment of SEZ Act. “In addition we have set up the One-Stop-Shop Investment Centre, which will make it easier for them to set up the operations in terms of licensing, registrations and other legal requirements.

“They wanted some incentives and a coordinated approach for setting up their businesses and that is what we have done. “Now we are confident that these changes will prove incentive enough for them.”

Following Mr dangote’s visit, through the facilitation of TV host Ms Josy Mahachi, authorities subsequently set up the Inter-Agency Platform —co-ordinated by the Office of the President and Cabinet – to handle the investments.

This has culminated in the high level delegation travelling to meet Mr Dangote.

Questions sent to the Nigerian billionaire’s company headquarters’ corporate communications department where not responded to by yesterday while Ms Mahachi’s mobile phone was unreachable since Friday.

Dangote Group has interests in manufacturing and power generation. Dr Sibanda said prospects for attracting more Foreign Direct Investment in 2017 were bright owing to the reforms implemented by Government last year.

He said the country is beginning to attract a lot of investment inquiries from non-traditional investor countries, especially from Europe.

“We are receiving a lot of inquiries from a number of investors in different countries who wish to invest in Zimbabwe. “The most important thing we did in 2016 was passing the SEZ Act and this has made the country tremendously attractive for investors.

“We project that in 2017 we will have lots of inquiries from non-traditional investor countries including from Europe.

“The ground work was also well set when we held the investment conference in the United Kingdom this year (last year). We also visited Germany, Canada and South Africa. We have already made a lot of inroads.

“So, we are likely to see a lot of investor interest from Western Europe in 2017.”

ENDS_

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