Come Home to Zimbabwe

Comment: We at Come Home To Zim will watch carefully to see when this Bond is actually launched, and pass on the information. It is worth noting that the most recent Reserve Bank bond to mature (raised and guaranteed by government), has paid investors absolutely zero. The bond matured in January 2010 but the bank defaulted on its repayments of investment with the promised interest. But perhaps the participation of Afreximbank in this scheme, will give potential investors a little more confidence this time…

We also wonder why, with all those diamonds at their disposal, the government needs diasporeans’ cash?

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 20 February 2010 17:20

ZIMBABWE’S begging bowl will be extended to the Diaspora once again as the
country seeks to raise US$50 million to help finance the rebuilding of the
economy. The fund-raising initiative will be carried out through the
floating of a Diaspora Bond to enlist the services of non-resident
Zimbabweans in the reconstruction of the country.

The bond – a formal contract to repay borrowed money with interest at fixed
intervals – was first mooted last year and was supposed to be floated in
July.

But it was put on hold to allow promoters to tie a few loose ends.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and government would guarantee the
bond.

Gift Simwaka, Afreximbank’s regional manager for Southern Africa told
Standardbusiness last week that the parties are working on the coupon
(interest) to be charged.

“The coupon is yet to be determined but it would be at competitive rates and
in line with prevailing market conditions at the time of subscription.

“The tenure would be three years,” he said.

The idea of the Diaspora bond was mooted last year in a bid to enlist the
services of Zimbabweans to help rebuild the economy.

Over three million Zimbabweans are in the Diaspora in South Africa, UK and
US having fled the political and economic crisis of the last decade.

The majority of them are professionals and plans to lure them back have hit
a brick wall due to low salaries offered on the local market.

Every month, the non-resident Zimbabweans send money to prop up struggling
relatives back home in the wake of low salaries averaging US$200 a month.

Remittances from the Diaspora topped US$190 million last year, a 142%
increase from the previous year.

In the three-year Macro-Economic Policy and Budget Framework launched last
year government recognizes the role played by non-resident Zimbabweans in
economic development.

It said government will develop an appropriate remittance framework linked
to investment opportunities working in conjunction with associations of
non-resident Zimbabweans.

Government bonds are affected by a number of variables such as inflation and
the perceived country risk.

Countries that are seen to be riskier than others have to offer a higher
coupon (interest) in the first place to attract investors than those that
have stable economies like the United States.

The more risky the country, the lower the price and therefore the higher the
yield and vice-versa. If a bond’s price falls, its yield rises and
vice-versa.

Falling yields are good for an economy and are referred to by economists and
politicians as “long-term interest rates” as it enables companies and
government to borrow more cheaply next time they need to.

Zimbabwe desperately needs the capital to kick start the economy.

The country’s revenue inflows, though increasing, cannot cover the projected
national costs. In 2010 government expects to get US$1.4 billion in revenue.

But with expenditures totalling US$2.250 billion, it means that the US$810
million in vote of credits pledged has to come in.

BY NDAMU SANDU

From MDC communiqué, The Changing Times, 21 August 209

The Office of the Prime Minister, Hon. Morgan Tsvangirai will review the controversial law that was used to strip thousands of people of their citizenship and right to vote because they were once citizens of other countries or because their parents were once foreigners.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office, Hon. Gorden Moyo, said the Prime Minister’s office was working on a policy document on the citizenship law that will be submitted to Cabinet.

He said changes to the law were necessary to enable thousands of Zimbabweans who lost their citizenship or who have acquired citizenship of other countries to participate in national affairs.

“All we are saying is that let’s discuss about these issues.  There are a lot of children who were born out of the country and acquired citizenship of their resident countries but they are also Zimbabweans who have lost their citizenship because of the dual citizenship law,” said Hon. Moyo.

Zimbabwe bars dual citizenship, while a 2003 amendment to the Citizenship Act tightened the law by requiring Zimbabweans who were once citizens of other countries or whose parents were once foreigners to formally renounce that “foreign citizenship” in order to qualify for Zimbabwean citizenship.

The law saw thousands of Zimbabweans being removed from the citizenship roll, in a plot by Zanu PF to whittle down the MDC’s support.

Most of those affected by the law were white Zimbabweans of European origin or black workers on white-owned farms whose parents migrated from neighbouring countries and who largely supported the MDC.

Hon. Moyo said the proposed changes to the citizenship law were part of wider efforts to restore the rights of an estimated three million Zimbabweans or a quarter of the country’s 12 million people living in exile and to encourage them to participate in the recovery of the country.
“We are working on a policy document that is going to increase the participation of Zimbabweans in the diaspora in the economy and other spheres,” he said.
“We are still on the discussion stage but the policy is going to deal with issues such as the remittances of investments, repatriation of skills, refugees, restoration of voting rights and the citizenship question.”
Hon. Tsvangirai has since called on exiled Zimbabweans to return home to help rebuild the country.

JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai got a warm reception on Saturday in Johannesburg as he appealed to exiled Zimbabweans to invest in and return to their country.

“The reconstruction cannot be done by government alone, by people in Zimbabwe alone,” he said at a rally of about 300 Zimbabweans singing protest songs and greeting his speech with cheers, claps and whistles.

“You and everyone else will have to play their part in that reconstruction agenda. Zimbabwe is changing,” he said. “It is slow and it can be frustrating, but it is changing.”

The rally at the University of Witswatersrand here contrasted sharply with his welcome in June in England, where Tsvangirai was jeered when he appealed to Zimbabweans to return to their country.

“I think he’s a true leader. He’s a person who can take Zimbabwe from darkness to the sunny side,” said one attendee at the rally, Mduduza Mcube, 29.

Several people wore shirts saying the Zimbabwe’s President Robert “Mugabe must go” and waved the Zimbabwean flag.

Many at the rally were reluctant, however, to return to a country which is still plagued by economic and political instability.

Farai Madamombe, 39, was disappointed by Tsvangirai’s speech, which he said did not give him a “roadmap” back to his country.

Madamombe moved to South Africa three years ago after losing his job as an accountant in Zimbabwe, and said he could not return until there were job opportunities there.

South African investors on Friday evening were also receptive to Tsvangirai but appeared hesitant to commit money to Zimbabwe, saying it would be a humanitarian investment unlikely to reap financial benefits.

“This country’s economic stability requires access to foreign markets, finance, technologies, skills and ideas, which are only made possible by all the key stakeholders working together as partners committed to Zimbabwe’s development,” Tsvangirai said at a dinner for South African industry leaders.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe formed a unity government in February after Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s only ruler since its independence, lost a first round vote last year.

The government was formed to end the violence that erupted after the vote and to rescue the floundering economy.

Tsvangirai arrived in South Africa Friday and was due to meet with South African President Jacob Zuma before he leaves on Tuesday to discuss the problems Zimbabwe’s unity government is facing, according to MDC spokesman Sibanengi Dube.