Manchester

Zimbabweans in Manchester seek investment opportunities

After addressing a large number of Zimbabweans at Midway, a public house run by a Zimbabwean, Mr Francis Mundangepfupfu, Rainbow Tourism Group Chief Executive Herbert Nkala, who is Chairman of the Publicity Sub-Committee promoting Homelink, and Michael Hamilton, who is Managing Director of MHPR Public Relations Consultants, spent more than four hours mingling with patrons, answering their questions and listening to their suggestions and requests.

“Would it not be possible to set aside for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora a block of shares in parastatals that are being privatised, which Zimbabweans here can pay for in pounds?” asked one Zimbabwean.

He was one of several who expressed an interest in investing money in Zimbabwe but said they lacked information on investment opportunities.

“Could you not find a way of letting us know what investment opportunities there are and what we need to do to make the investment?” another Zimbabwean asked. “When a parastatal is being privatised, could you find a way of passing that information to us, so we can buy shares ourselves in pounds?”

One of the possible means through which such information could be passed that was discussed was posting it on the Homelink web site (www.homelinkzimbabwe.com).

Interest in investing in Zimbabwe was evident in all the centres the Reserve Bank Homelink-Kumusha-Ekhaya team visited.

“Can I open an account in Zimbabwe into which I can pay money? If so, how do I go about doing that from here?” one person asked a member of the team in Manchester.

“Would it not be possible for me to make a direct electronic payment over the internet into my building society account back home?” another asked.

Other requests that were made in Manchester were for consideration to be given to a special low-interest mortgage scheme for Zimbabweans abroad in consideration of the fact that repayments would be made in pounds.

Some proposed that the Reserve Bank should establish its own money transfer agency, so that Zimbabwe rather than international money transfer agencies would benefit from the commission. Similar suggestions to this were put forward at other centres visited by the Reserve Bank team.

While it has been common to hear complaints about the level of commission charged by international money transfer agencies, many people have said they would not mind paying commission to the Reserve Bank, if it set up an agency in Britain.