By Zachary Gava
Harare, (New Ziana) — Zimbabwe should move beyond identifying its development challenges to deliberately packaging them into viable investment opportunities capable of attracting private capital and generating measurable social impact, an expert has said.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe chief executive officer Dr Douglas Mboweni said this at a National Stakeholder Forum on Investment Impact held in Harare on Friday.
He said sectors such as health, agriculture, education, digital technology, energy, housing and water presented significant opportunities for impact investment, but stressed that these need to be supported by sound business models.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) organised the forum.
“We as Zimbabweans, we know our needs. But the challenge that I want to underscore… are we translating them into investable opportunities?” Mboweni asked.
He said impact investment should not be viewed as a choice between making money and improving people’s lives, but as an approach that achieves both objectives.
“Impact investment is about addressing both making money and making a difference. That is true impact investment,” he said.
Mboweni said Zimbabwe could not rely solely on public infrastructure and philanthropy to meet its development needs, arguing that private capital had to be mobilized around national priorities.
“What we need is, private sector must also be mobilized. And that is why private capital must be part of the solution,” he said.
He urged stakeholders to develop a clear pipeline of bankable projects and build partnerships capable of mobilizing different forms of capital around specific problems.
“Capital is looking for an opportunity. It must be an attractive environment. It must be something where capital feels safe,” he said, calling for greater confidence in Zimbabwe as an investment destination.
Mboweni said Econet’s experience demonstrated that sustainable impact required strong commercial foundations.
“Behind a solid impact investment must be a business model,” he said, recounting his experiences presenting investment opportunities to investors in cities including Cape Town, London and Boston.
He said investors were ultimately interested in the viability of projects rather than the ability to articulate a problem.
“Each time I was in front of investors, they would not be interested in how articulate I was about the issue. They would simply say, what is the business plan?” he said.
The largest telecommunications services provider in Zimbabwe, Econet launched the first private mobile network in July 1998 and has since expanded into mobile communications, mobile money, micro-insurance and digital services.
The company now serves more than 16 million customers and continues to invest in new technologies, including artificial intelligence.
Mboweni said Econet had invested more than US$2 billion since inception, generating significant economic and social benefits, including employment, connectivity and support for education and healthcare.
He cited the deployment of connectivity infrastructure in rural communities, solarization of more than 100 clinics and provision of Wi-Fi services to educational institutions as examples of how commercial assets could create wider social value.
Mboweni also highlighted artificial intelligence as a new frontier for Zimbabwean investment, pointing to Econet’s Yamurai virtual assistant, developed by local young engineers.
“We are not satisfied by just creating solutions for Zimbabwe. We want great solutions for Africa. We want great solutions for the world,” he said.
He challenged stakeholders to ensure that impact investments were sustainable rather than dependend on goodwill.
“A project dependent on goodwill is fragile. If you want to make an impact and to scale it, you must have good economics behind it,” he said.
New Ziana
