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Greetings from Cape Town. Yesterday I met an investment analyst from Namibia who stayed in Zimbabwe for four years in the 1990s and did two years of her secondary education here.
The moment I introduced myself as coming from Zimbabwe (a fact I am always proud of and thank God for, even during the forgettable 2007-2009 era when there was no cooking oil or bath soap in the shops) her face brightened and could not stop telling me about how blessed the country is.

She said Zimbabwe was the model of Sadc and Africa at large in terms of its policies and industrial base whose foundation has remained intact despite the challenges.

She was eager to know how the manufacturing sector was doing, if agriculture was still as vibrant as it used to be and a whole host of questions that I had the pleasure of responding to.

I told her the truth about the state of our economy. That, indeed, the manufacturing sector had gone through quite some battering owing to challenges over the past decade, many of which were a result of the illegal sanctions imposed by the West.

However, I told her that with the new economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, all the glamour would soon be back.

But what struck me was her love for this country and the faith that she had in the economy. I would have expected that she would . . . After I told her that things were not yet as glossy as she knew them, but no!

She actually kept on stressing the point that the Zimbabwean economy was one of the best in the region and would regain its stature once external forces laid their hands off.

“The good thing about your country is that President Mugabe is a principled man and he is aware of how dangerous it is to let external forces have a say in your country’s politics and the economy at large.

“At least he knows how to handle all these forces that have been seeking to destroy the economy all along. If you take out their negative influence, you will notice that the economy has all it needs,” she said.

These observations made me realise that she must have been aware of developments in the country, but was either trying to understand them better from a Zimbabwean perspective or maybe she just wanted to see how I would respond, whether I was a patriot or I belonged to that section of our population that has nothing good to say about the country.

That part that always concentrates on the glass being half empty and not half full. That group that even goes on foreign platforms to rubbish the country, exaggerating things in the process!

That section of our populace that says nothing good will come out of the country. That section that feels Zimbabwe is a lost cause and yet we have people like the Namibian investment analyst who insists that there is so much going for Zimbabwe and that the country has all it takes to regain its stature. She did not need any convincing from me. I did not have to tell lies about us having a 2 percent unemployment rate, a Gross Domestic Product growth averaging 10 percent or that we were now turning away foreign investors because we had too many of them already from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan etc. No!

I told her of our challenges and how the Government and other stakeholders were working towards eliminating them.
She still believes in our country. This was such a refreshing encounter! Certainly we should not pretend that the economy is at its best, we should not pretend that industry is firing, we cannot pretend that every Zimbabwean is awash with money.

But, just like my Namibian friend, we need to believe in ourselves and believe in the potential that is resident in our economy.
We have serious challenges that need to be addressed. This other day I cringed when I heard that depositors were failing to withdraw their money from banks. Was it because of the huge demand as we enter the festive season?

Was this indicative of the liquidity challenge that has continued to bite over the past few years? Whatever the reasons, this is a serious issue that needs proper handling.

Attention should be given to redressing the cash challenges immediately so that the situation does not deteriorate further.
Confidence in the banking sector and the resultant improvement in the level of savings are critical ingredients as the economy fights to recover. There has always been talk that the bulk of money in Zimbabwe is circulating in the informal sector and it is such scenarios where people fail to access their money that has discouraged deposits.

Something needs to be done urgently. Of course, monetary policy interventions remain constricted in this instance.
We would have had to print a few more dollars to improve money supply, but the fact that we are at the mercy of external forces regarding the availability or lack thereof of the US dollar and other currencies in our economy means that the authorities need to come up with strategies to address this predicament.

The levels of liquidity must certainly improve. The economy desperately needs huge financial injections and the fact that we will soon be selling our diamonds through the Antwerp platform should help improve the situation.

There is urgent need to identify assets that can be converted into cash immediately and ensure that this is done expeditiously.
Those of our friends who believe in this country should move in to assist. Funds are required in their billions to get the economic ticking again.
We cannot afford to disappoint ourselves and others such as the Namibian financial expert, through failure to articulate challenges timeously.
I hope Mr Richard Mbaiwa and his team at the Zimbabwe Investment Authority have designed effective strategies to lure investment.
We would want to see deliberate efforts to attract investment be they regional and international road shows or just improving efficiency in their follow-up mechanisms.

Investors are interested in this economy and we should do our level best to entice them.  Zimbabwe is competing with the rest of the world for investment and this effectively means we need to be more aggressive and persuasive in our efforts.

The brand Zimbabwe machinery should be rolling so that the desire to see the economy operating viable as expressed by the Namibian friend of mine and other external friends wishing us well is harnessed.

Zimbabwe could use such people to help spread the gospel that there is immense potential in this economy. Lets have fewer talk shows but more action to bring results.

Funding of  Zim Asset is anchored on domestic resources described in the document as being “in abundance and readily available for full exploitation and utilisation”. So lets see this happening.

The creation of the Sovereign Wealth Fund is also expected to provide predictability sustainability to Government funding.
Also, efforts to engage development partners and multilateral financial institutions should begin to take shape to give impetus to Zim Asset while also improving the liquidity situation.

Those countries and institutions that have pledged support should move in and inject funds without delay. We encourage Government and the private sector to work in concert to elicit higher levels of financial and technical support in this economy.

In God I Trust

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