Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Zimbabwe is courting SA investors in the telecoms sector, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Tuesday.

Source: Zim courting SA telecoms companies for investment, says finance minister | Fin24

Zimbabwe is working on bundling together two of its state-owned telcos to make them attractive to would-be investors, particularly from South Africa, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube told a media briefing recently.

The Zimbabwean government, as part of lessening the burden on its coffers, is looking at selling a significant stake in the two state-owned telcos, namely mobile network provider NetOne and fixed and broadband network provider TelOne.

South African telcos Telkom and MTN have reportedly previously expressed interest in the two Zimbabwean companies, but nothing concrete followed.

Joint offering

“If these entities (Telkom and MTN) are still interested – and we will approach them by the way and let them know – then they have a much bigger asset to compete for in the form of the two assets together, as opposed to a TelOne or NetOne, which was the case before. But there will be other suitors that we will invite,” said Ncube.

The two entities will be offered as a joint package, with Ncube saying this is “the way to go”.

“They are joined at the hip and they are best working together. It is a joint offering to an investor. Government will get better value for money if these are offloaded together as a package,” he said.

“We would set up a SPV, which could then take 100% of the equity in the two entities. (The two) would be both held by this SPV, and then the shares are sold at SPV level. You don’t have to do anything about merging operations,” Ncube said.

According to Ncube, the plan is to sell a 60% shareholding in the combined entity.

“As we do so, we think that government should not have less than 40% equity in the two companies,” he said.

In terms of timelines, he said government should have identified investors by September.

Mobile penetration in Zimbabwe stands at 93.1%, while internet penetration has reached 62.9%, according to the 2018 fourth quarter report released Wednesday morning by regulator the Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.

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Source: ‘Zim is not poor’ | Herald (Business)

Michael Tome Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE will not take the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) route as it still has economic indicators that do not qualify it into the grouping, an official in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has said. Mrs Martha Mugweni, who works in the Ministry of Finance’s Aid and Debt Management Office, last week said becoming a HIPC was not automatic as it depends on some economic indicators.

Mrs Mugweni was representing Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube at the Zimbabwe high level debt conference in the capital.

As at December 31, 2018, the country’s total debt stood at US$16,6 billion with the external debt at US$$8,16 billion, representing 33,2 percent of GDP.

Mrs Mugweni said an improved GDP to debt from the days of dollarisation (2009), prevents the country from being characterised as HIPC.

She revealed that Government was working flat-out to clear the debt to sustainable levels, which will in turn induce economic stability and growth.

“HIPC is not automatic; it depends on some economic indicators. When we moved from Zimdollar in 2009, our GDP numbers improved and our debt numbers lowered,” said Mrs Mugweni.

“GDP ratio to debt improved, which shows that we cannot qualify for HIPC because there are thresholds which make a country qualify.

“But when we look at it technically as a country, we are saying even if our GDP numbers have improved, we are still not sustainable, we need to clear our arrears.”

Mrs Mugweni said Government plans to direct the 2 percent intermediated tax towards budget financing.

Critically, Government has stopped issuing Treasury Bills to promote fiscal discipline and contain the debt levels.

Said Mrs Mugweni: “From October when the 2 percent was introduced, as an office we are not going to the market to borrow, we are using that money to finance the budget and at the same time we are not issuing any Treasury Bills, indicating that it’s a positive move and we are hoping we can maintain that.”

Mrs Mugweni revealed that Government believes using commercial loans for debt cancellation will not save the country from debt, but was looking at accessing soft loans or grants to speed up the debt clearance process to access fresh capital from multilateral institutions.

“Indications are that if we use commercial loans to clear our arrears, the problem we are having will never end. We need either a very soft loan or a grant.

“That would be the best option but we are saying failure to that, maybe  we will approach the G7, they can give us a soft loan that has IDA (International Development Association) terms, which means it will have zero  interest with only  service fee of 0,75 percent which we can use,” she said.

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral, bilateral and commercial creditors, began HIPC initiative in 1996, with the aim of the world’s poorest countries were not overwhelmed by unmanageable or unsustainable debt burdens.

The HIPC initiative reduces the debt of countries meeting strict criteria, and reports show that the HIPC and related Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programs have relieved 36 participating countries of US$99 billion in debt.

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PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has, in an effort to pacify the Zanu PF old guard stripped of their ministerial posts and deployed to less influential posts as full-time party employees, assured them they wielded immense influence over government programmes. Addressing Zanu PF’s 111 central committee meeting on Friday, Mnangagwa said the ruling party was more supreme than government and would

Source: UZ hunts for Vice Chancellor | The Herald April 1, 2019

Ellen Chasokela Herald Reporter
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) has begun its search for a substantive Vice Chancellor to replace Professor Levi Nyagura, who left the institution amid allegations of abuse of office.

Prof Nyagura faced allegations of facilitating the unprocedural conferment of a Doctor of Philosophy degree on former First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe.

Prof Paul Mapfumo is the Acting Vice Chancellor.

UZ has since advertised the post in the media.

“The ViceChancellor leadership role entails being able to provide visionary and strategic leadership to the university, including maintaining and promoting research, innovation and industrialisation as well as ensuring efficiency and good governance in the conduct of business of the institution,” read the advert from the university.

“Negotiate strategic linkages with local and international institutions regarding instructional resources and the use of information and communication technologies for key academic and administrative activities of the University.”

The new Vice Chancellor is expected to foster strategic partnerships and harmonious working relationships between and among various university stakeholders, staff, students, public and private organisations.

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Source: Zim’s new currency has shed 20% since introduction | Fin24

Zimbabwe’s local currency, the RTGS dollar, has shed more than 20% of its value since its introduction as the availability of foreign currency on the formal market remains subdued.

By Friday the RTGS dollar had weakened to RTGS$ 3.0120 against the US dollar, a 20% drop.

Analysts attribute the continued slide of the local currency to the limited availability of foreign currency on the formal market, with export earners expecting it to weaken further.

“There is a feeling in the market that the formal market rate is being managed by the central bank, so export earners are reluctant to sell. But now that the rate has weakened further, we expect the market to be liquid going forward,”said Walter Mandeya of Trigrams Investments.

Late in February, Zimbabwe introduced a new currency called the RTGS, or real-time gross settlement dollar, in the process abandoning its long-held 1:1 parity between the US dollar and its local transactional instrument – the bond note.

The introduction of the new currency was also accompanied by the introduction of a market-based foreign exchange market, where the value of the local currency against other global currencies would be determined by market forces, through what is called an interbank market.

At the start, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe put an official rate of RTGS$2.5:US$1. This has since devalued to current levels.

The official exchange rate is however 40% lower than what is prevailing on the parallel market, where the RTGS dollar is trading at 4.2 times the greenback.

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