Cutting red tape and creating an environment that attracts investors is a top priority for Zimbabwe which has implemented at least five pieces of legislation in the past year to do just that, according to Nigel Chanakira, non-executive chairman of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA). According to Chanakira, at least seven more pieces of legislation are expected to be passed in the coming months – all currently before the southern African country’s parliament. “All of this legislation is aimed at attracting foreign direct investment into the country by creating an operating environment that is easy to do business in,” he said. According to Chanakira, changing perceptions about Zimbabwe is necessary if the country wants to attract more investors and see trade thrive. Growing investments into the country was at the top of the agenda, he said. Chanakira, a Zimbabwean businessman, has been actively pushing this agenda in his role as chairman of the ZIA, a position he held until last year. The organisation promotes, facilitates, regulates and co-ordinates all investment activities in line with government policy. Its major objective is to encourage investments by domestic and foreign investors. “The legislation implemented last year is all aimed at removing bureaucracy and red tape for foreign investors,” he said. “This legislation came about because of concrete efforts by the investment authority. We actively engaged with government and were vocal about the policies we felt were required.” He said having worked in the private sector for many years he had often been involved in talks between business and government, but it was only after joining the ZIA in 2013 that he realised that more often than not much of what the private sector would lobby for had no follow-through in government. “We aimed to change that at ZIA,” he said. And while the industry has often complained about the long and drawn-out process to register a business in Zimbabwe, Chanakira said this could be made possible within a few days. “That is what we are trying to achieve with this legislation. We want to hold investors’ hands to make their experience as easy as possible.” Chanakira said the success of Zimbabwe was important not just from an individual country perspective but for the whole region. “We need to have policies in place that make people want to invest in a country. We are moving that way in Zimbabwe.”
