HARARE – Energy and Power Development Minister July Moyo has implored the US government to “release” its private sector to enable business to invest directly into Zimbabwe.
Moyo was speaking at the high-level Powering Africa Summit in Washington on Friday where he said Zimbabwe it is ready to partner the United States on coal production after Washington has announced a major shift in its energy policy.
The US has reversed its long-standing opposition to fossil fuel and is now ready to work with Africa.
Speaking at the summit, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright acknowledged that Western countries, including the US, have previously discouraged African nations from developing their coal resources.
He highlighted coal’s critical role in global electricity generation and economic growth.
Moyo said, “Our plea, again to the United States as Zimbabwe, release your private sector so that they can invest directly into Zimbabwe, and we have created an environment where they will earn money because their investment will be guaranteed.”
The US’s tough policies imposed more than two decades ago prohibit its companies from doing business with Zimbabwe.
This followed a messy fall-out by the former allies after Zimbabwe embarked on a violent grab of tracts of arable land which was in the hands of white farmers. Zimbabwe has defended its position saying the process was aimed at correcting historical land imbalances that saw its native black population deprived of its prime resource by more than a century of colonial rule.
Speaking on Friday, Moyo said the country’s abundant coal and coalbed methane can also be effective in the agricultural industry as well.
“Power generation could be one aspect. We are an agricultural country, we want our fertilisers, so any investment in that coalbed methane gas, we could end up doing our fertilisers, which we are importing right now, and as a country that believes very strongly in agriculture, that would be a good investment.”
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