Harare, (New Ziana) — The Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) said on Wednesday it now wants to focus more on ensuring that investment approvals were converted into project implementation on the ground to spur economic growth.
Addressing a Stakeholders engagement forum, ZIDA chief executive officer, Tafadzwa Chinamo, said the agency will put less emphasis on just licencing investment proposals, and shift focus to ensuring these are translated into physical projects on the ground.
“Success cannot end with generating investor interest or issuing an investment licence. The question for the next phase of ZIDA is not only: How much investment can we attract? It must increasingly be: How effectively are we converting investment interest into productive enterprises?. Ultimately, we want to see investment move from promise to productive activity,” he said.
Chinamo added: “Our ambition is to continue building an Agency that is responsive, practical, investor-centred, accountable, and increasingly focused on investment implementation and conversion.”
According to the Agency’s performance update presented by chief human resources and strategy officer, Kuda Nyashanu, ZIDA approved 481 new investment licences and renewed 359 licences between January and August 2026.
He said said the Agency engaged 403 investors in the first two quarters of the year with projects worth $1.82 billion in commitments.
Nyashanu said ZIDA had, as part of measures to reduce red tape, cut the licensing turnaround time for investors from 21 days to five, in part owing to a simpler digital application system introduced which was now 100 percent functional.
New Ziana
