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VP Mphoko

Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
ALL is set for the African Capacity Building Foundation Silver Jubilee celebrations that start in Harare today where at least 300 delegates from all the 54 countries on the continent, European and American representatives are expected to attend.

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko is expected to officially open the celebrations tomorrow.

The celebrations are being held alongside the third Capacity Development Forum (CDF) and the programme ends on Thursday.

ACBF communications consultant Mrs Susan Mwiti confirmed yesterday that it was all systems go.

“The delegates started arriving in Harare on Sunday but most of them are expected to arrive today (yesterday),” she said.

“All preparations are in place. The set-up at the Harare International Conference Centre began on Friday and should be completed today (yesterday).”

The ACBF that was formed in 1991 is partially owned by African governments with ministers of finance or economic planning from the continent making up its board of governors.

The institution is headquartered in Harare and is composed of 39 African countries, 13 non-African countries from Europe and the United States of America and three multilateral and bilateral institutions – the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.

A number of eminent leaders from the continent and international financial institutions are lined up to address the celebrations, among them former ACBF executive secretary, who is also former Mali prime minister Dr Soumana Sako; Commissioner for Economic Affairs (African Union Commission), Dr Renaud Seligmann (Practice Manager, Governance Global Practice, World Bank) and, Women’s University in Africa Vice-Chancellor Professor Hope Sadza.

Also expected to address the event are Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Ministry permanent secretary Dr Desire Sibanda, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) regional director for Africa, Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Lars Ronnås, and ACBF executive secretary Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie as well as African Development Bank Officer-in-Charge in Zimbabwe Mrs Mary Manneko Monyau.

Minister Chinamasa

Speaking to the media recently, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the hosting of the celebrations in Zimbabwe would enable the country to showcase its business opportunities to regional and international delegates.

“It’s going to be a very important event,” said Minister Chinamasa.

“We expect as many representatives from the member countries. The participants are usually us as governors, non-governors from the African countries. We are also expecting representatives from the multilateral, bilateral and technical partners as well as attendance from embassies and resource persons.

“As the name suggests, the focus of the foundation is primarily to do with capacity building and in this regard, this organisation which is now 25 years old, has been doing commendable work on the continent in terms of building capacity in our respective countries.”

The minister said ACBF’s focus was on creating and supporting think tanks that are established on the continent.

He said the organisation has been developing and running training programmes for both the public and private sectors, as well as regional economic blocs in the continent.

Minister Chinamasa said Zimbabwe was a beneficiary of a number of initiatives from the foundation.

“They also are a strong institution in the area of generation of knowledge and also best practices. It is the foundation that we run to when we want to know the international best practices for benchmarking, and we are very grateful for the support that the foundation has been giving,” said Minister Chinamasa.