HARARE – Bard Santner CEO Senziwani Sikhosana says the return of Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote to pursue a potential US$1 billion investment could mark a decisive economic turning point for Zimbabwe, capping what he described as a 16-month private campaign to lure the industrialist back following his abandoned 2015 plans.
Speaking at the Bard Santner Golf Day on Saturday, Sikhosana said the agreement between the government and Dangote Group showed that “Zimbabwe is ready to rise,” calling it “a turning point” and “a signal that global capital is beginning to listen again.”
He said his firm, a prominent financial intermediary, was honoured to have advised on what he described as a historic process.
“This moment is not just a transaction. It is a turning point,” he told bankers and industrialists.
Dangote visited Zimbabwe last week and announced interest in cement manufacturing, coal mining, power generation and a fuel pipeline expected to link Walvis Bay in Namibia to Bulawayo.
His renewed engagement follows years of frustration after his 2015 plans to build a cement plant collapsed in what journalist and business adviser Josie Mahachi described as a “toxic business environment.”
“Honestly, I don’t want to lie. I had really closed the Zimbabwe chapter between Aliko Dangote and my country Zimbabwe,” Mahachi said, recalling how the earlier excitement “fell into unexplained obscurity.”
Mahachi, who worked with Sikhosana to revive the talks, said convincing Dangote to reconsider Zimbabwe was not easy.
“Fast forward, here we are. We said to Aliko, ‘let’s try again’,” she recalled.
Her renewed outreach, combined with visits to a Dangote Group plant in Nigeria, eventually set the stage for last week’s visit, during which the billionaire met President Emmerson Mnangagwa and signed an investment agreement.
During the visit, Dangote said he was encouraged by what he sees as improvements in the investment climate under Mnangagwa’s administration.
Sikhosana said negotiations began in June 2024 and were conducted “under absolute discretion.”
“No leak. No whisper. No breach,” he said. “This discipline is not accidental, it is cultural. It is the oath we take when you entrust us with your money.”
He said the Dangote development is already generating fresh international interest.
“Zimbabwe is open. Zimbabwe is stabilising. Zimbabwe is stepping into a new economic season,” he said, describing Bard Santner as “a bridge through which global capital can enter with clarity, structure and confidence.”
Sikhosana insisted the development should be viewed as the start of a broader economic shift.
“This is not simply a deal. It is a doorway. Not a moment, but a movement,” he said. “The Dangote engagement is not a landmark, it is a launchpad.”
“The doors are open. The runway is clear. The engines of opportunity are humming.”
He credited government leadership for enabling the breakthrough.
“Dangote’s arrival, championed by the president, is proof of what becomes possible when courage, clarity and competence meet in the same room,” he said.
Dangote has already deployed a technical team to Zimbabwe following the signing of the commitment, setting in motion what Sikhosana says could define a new chapter in the country’s economic trajectory.
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