HARARE-Interest from foreign investors willing to set up base in Zimbabwe remains strong with 200 investment licences issued in the fourth quarter of 2024, the investment promotion agency has said.
A Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) 2024 fourth quarter report released on Tuesday shows that the number of investment licences issued increased by 19.04 percent compared to the previous quarter in which 149 licences were issued around the same period in 2023.
“The significant rise in licences issued can be attributed to improvements in the licensing process, particularly the adoption of the online DIY Licensing Portal. With 98.1 percent of applications processed through the portal since its launch, investors have embraced this efficient method of application submission,” said ZIDA.
ZIDA said in terms of the amounts committed by prospective investors, Q4 of 2023 had a higher value of US$11,502,92 compared to US$4,586,99 in the third quarter of 2024.
“Despite the high number of licences issued during Q4 of 2024, there was a 60.12% decrease in the projected investment values compared to the same period in 2023 and by 34.22% compared to the licences issued in the same period of 2023. This decline was attributed to the receipt of some high-value outlier projects in 2023, which resulted in a higher overall projected investment value in that period,” said ZIDA.
ZIDA chief executive Tafadzwa Chinamo said, “On the bright side, we recorded an increase in the number of licences renewed during the quarter compared to the same period last year”.
Analysed by sector, the mining sector continues to attract the greatest number of investors with 91 investment licences issued during the quarter followed by 47 granted to the manufacturing sector.
“In terms of value, investors are committing to invest in the real estate sector and had the highest value accounting for 43.60 percent of the total projected investment for the quarter. The energy sector was next, accounting for 22.76 percent of the projected investment value for the quarter. In total, we recorded investments in 12 sectors demonstrating the diversity of the Zimbabwean economy, an attribute we intend to showcase in the future,” said Chinamo.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, the real estate sector had the highest projected investment value of US$2 billion followed by the energy sector with a projected investment value of US$ 1,043 billion.
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