Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote with Dangote Group Executive Director Edwin Devakumur Victor in Harare last week
Tendai Mugabe Harare Bureau
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote wants a quick implementation of the investment deals he has agreed with Zimbabwe as shown by a high-powered delegation of technocrats that arrived in Harare yesterday.
Dangote’s team comprises lawyers and geologists who are here to deal with the legal paperwork required for the investment deals in power generation, coal mining and cement manufacturing to take off.
The team also includes a Zimbabwean national Rumbidzai Sithole, who is the Dangote Group corporate strategy specialist. Soon after arrival, the technocrats from the Dangote Group held a joint meeting with various ministries that was chaired by Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Justin Mupamhanga.
The deals in the various fields are expected to take off early next year. The visit comes barely a week after Dangote, the founder of Dangote Group, came here and met President Robert Mugabe, Vice Presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko and a number of government ministers where he expressed interest to invest in the areas.
Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man with a net worth of almost $18 billion according to Forbes Magazine’s rankings, said he was keen to invest in power generation, coal mining and cement manufacturing.
Some of the ministries that were represented at the meeting with the delegation from the Dangote Group were Mines and Mining Development, Finance, Energy and Power Development and Transport and Infrastructure Development.
The team is today expected to have meetings with individual ministries to discuss specific projects. Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mischeck Sibanda said he was yet to be briefed on the outcome of the meeting. Mines and Mining Development secretary Professor Francis Gudyanga confirmed the meeting yesterday.
He said the meeting was aimed at ensuring that there were no delays in implementing the agreed projects. “We had a joint meeting with other ministries that was chaired by Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Mupamhanga),” he said.
“The meeting was aimed at ensuring that we facilitate all processes that are required so that there are no delays. We (Ministry of Mines and Mining Development) are meeting them tomorrow (today). They’ve geologists in their team and they will also meet our geologists here.”
Dangote Group has a vast business empire that spans across manufacturing, logistics and power generation, in many African countries, including Zambia where it established a $400 million cement manufacturing plant.
Dangote’s investment deals will be a major boost to the economy as they are coming at a time when Zimbabwe is finalising the implementation of mega deals signed by President Mugabe and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on his State visit to China last year.
The deals are being implemented under the country’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).
President Mugabe recently presented a 10-Point Plan meant to set the country on a massive economic recovery path in line with the Zim-Asset targets. The 10-Point Plan cuts across all the key economic enablers and puts to the fore, value addition and beneficiation of the country’s mineral resources.
Different government ministries have already started implementation of the plan by mooting several mega projects that are set to significantly contribute to the fiscus and employment creation.
In line with Zim-Asset, the government projected to create at least two million jobs by 2018 and construct 313,000 houses to ensure sustainable and decent housing for the people, among other targets.