By Funny Hudzerema

HARARE - The Ministry of Tour-ism and Hospitality Indus-try is targeting 2, 5 million tourist arrivals by year end. This it said will be achieved through the implementation of a number of projects aimed at encouraging tourists to visit Zimbabwe.

Minister of Tourism and Hos-pitality Industry Engineer Walter Mzembi said the target will be achieved if the whole country works together to advertise Zimbabwe as the best tourist destination in Africa.

“We are hoping that we can cross the 2, 5 million mark in terms of arrivals and progress

within the context of the $5 bill ion economic paper to $1, 5 million in terms of revenue.

“This will be spearheaded by the National Tourism Master Plan which will be assisting in measuring and monitor-

ing ways which promote the inflows of tourists,” he said.

During the first quarter of

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Tuesday 12 January 2016Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw

Zimbabwe targets 2,5 million tourist arrivals

2 NEws

2015 a total of 390 000 tour-ists visited Zimbabwe.

“The refurbishment of the Victoria Falls airport will also assist in increasing the num-ber of arrivals in the country.

“By 2017 we will be around 3 million arrivals if we work hard as we are doing now tagging Victoria Falls into consideration thus why we build it to lend arrivals and to see them out so it will be a game charger,” he said.

He added that his Ministry of tourism is discussing with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to accept the rand in the tour-

ism sector by scratching the 15 percent value added tax for foreign accommodation since the number of tour-ists from Namibia and South

Africa were decreasing.

Currently the ministry of tourism is implementing a number of projects which include the construction of

Tourism Special Economic Zones and the implementa-tion of Tourism Master Plan aimed at increasing tourist arrivals in the country..●

BH243

By Tawanda Musarurwa

HARARE - Mining conglomerate Caledonia Mining Corporation has granted long term incentives to its directors Messrs Steve Curtis, Mark Learmonth, Caxton Mangezi and Dana Roets, through a Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan.

The Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan was approved by the company's shareholders in May last year.

Mr Curtis is Caledonia’s president, chief executive and director, while Mr Learmonth is chief financial officer and vice president, Mr Roets is the chief operating officer and Mr Mangezi is general manager and director of Blanket Mine.

According to the group, the Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) awards are made in the form of Restricted Share Units (RSU's) and Perfor-mance Share Units (PSU's), which will be settled in cash, reflecting the prevailing Caledonia share price at the maturity of the award.

The company said no shares will be issued as a result of the LTIP

awards.

"The awards are intended to create a high degree of alignment between the remuneration of Caledonia's senior management team and the interests of shareholders. Accord-ingly, 80 percent of the award value for each Participant is made up of PSU's.

"The final number of PSU's which vest on maturity of the award will be adjusted to reflect the actual perfor-mance of the Company in terms of three criteria: progress on the sink-ing of the Central Shaft; gold pro-duction and production costs.

"In the case of all three criteria, if actual performance is less than 70 percent of target, no PSU's will vest; if actual performance is greater than 70 percent of target, the num-ber of vesting PSU's will be adjusted pro rata on a linear basis.

"In the case of Central Shaft pro-gress, adjustment will be to a maximum of 100 percent of target whereas adjustments with respect to gold production and costs will increase on a linear pro rata basis reflecting the extent to which actual performance exceeds target, sub-ject to a maximum of 200 percent of the initial target," said the Toronto

Stock Exchange and London-listed Caledonia in a statement.

The total annual LTIP award for Messrs. Learmonth, Mangezi and Roets is 20 percent of basic salary; the total annual LTIP award for Mr Curtis is 30 percent of his basic sal-ary.

Commenting on the introduction of the Plan, Caledonia chairman Mr Leigh Wilson said:

"Caledonia has set in place an objective and transparent incentiv-isation system for its senior man-agement team which closely aligns the interests of shareholders and the performance of management.

"Management is now clearly incenti-vised to deliver on the core aspects of the Revised Investment Plan which we announced to the mar-ket in November 2014 - these core aspects being gold production, cost control and progress on sinking the Central Shaft."

Caledonia's main interest is a 49 percent stake in the Gwanda-based gold producer, Blanket Mine.●

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Mr Steve Curtis

Caledonia awards long term incentive awards to 4 directors

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BH24 Reporter

HARARE - Microfinance insti-tution, Hillthru Enterprises, has established several branches across the country as it seeks to sustain a market (small business enterprises) that is typically seen as high-risk area by major banks.

The MFI currently has 18 branches spread across all cor-ners of the country – Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru, Masvingo, Chipinge, Chiredzi, Gutu, Zvishavane, Rusape, Beitbridge, Gwanda, Kwekwe, Gokwe, Lupane, Marondera, Chimanimani and Hwange.

Hillthru Enterprises CEO Mr Taguma Mazarire said the fact that it remains one of the few MFIs with a headquarters in Masvingo is a clear demonstra-tion that they have a special focus on the small business niche in outlaying areas.

Typically most MFIs are based in the country's two main cities

- Harare and Bulawayo.

According to an RBZ report last year, of the main cities, Harare had the highest numbers of MFIs with 124, followed by Bul-

awayo with 41, Mutare with 28 and Gweru 27.

Mr Mazarire said the company has grown on the backbone of accountability, responsibil-

ity, transparency and reliabil-ity, and that the firm is fully in compliance with the Core Client Protection Principles.

“Hillthru Enterprises is fully in compliance with the Core Cli-ent Protection Principles and we actually go an extra mile to make sure our clients are happy and that all the regulations con-cerning protection of clients are adhered to.

“The strategies we institute in regard to regulations concern-ing the protection of clients include Fair pricing of loans and transparency in terms of charges, prevention from over indebtedness, maintaining of privacy, as well as fair and respectful treatment,” he said.

MFIs, especially in the con-text of the present state of the local economy, fill a needed gap within the financial ser-vices industry by offering small loans, or micro-loans, to people unable to access conventional loan services.●

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MFI spreads wings across Zimbabwe

BH247

By Elita Chikwati

HARARE - The Tobacco Indus-try and Marketing Board and Agritex are conducting a crop assessment in all tobacco growing areas to come with a crop estimate for the 2016 marketing season as well as determine the opening dates for the season

TIMB public relations manager, Mr Isheunesu Moyo said their officers were on the ground in all provinces to assess read-iness of the farmers for the season.

“The crop estimate will ena-ble us to prepare adequately for the season. Most farmers who had an irrigated crop are reaping and curing but the crop quality has been affected by hot weather and this may affect the quality of the crop,” he said.

Mr Moyo said TIMB was going to use the e-marketing tech-nology to improve the market-ing system. The introduction

of e-marketing at Zimbabwe’s auction floors is aimed at increasing transparency in the tobacco business especially the selling of the crop.

India is facilitating the soft-ware and the hardware while the other equipment will be obtained from local compa-

nies. Tobacco production has been on the increase for the past years with farmers switching from crops such as maize and cotton to the lucra-tive golden leaf.

Farmers have however been complaining about the ceiling price of $ 4, 99 per kilogramme

at the auction floors while con-tract floors offer prices above $5 per kg.

According to contractors, the prices at the contract floors are higher to incentives the farmers and also reward them for not side marketing the crop.●

8 NEws

TIMB, Agritex conduct crop assessment

HARARE - Low activity was the order of the day as only three counters managed to trade today.

The mainstream industrial index lost a marginal 0.03 to close at 112.18 despite only one counter trading in the red.

Telecoms giant Econet lost

$0,0015 to settle at $0,2100.

BAT, Delta, CBZ, Innscor and Simbisa were unchanged at $12,2000, $0,6800, $0,1100, $0,2400 and $0,1600 respec-tively.

On the upside, Powerspeed increased by $0,0010 to close at $0,0230 while milk processor

Dairibord rose by $0,0005 to trade at $0,0690.

The mining index was steady at 21.82 as Bindura, Falgold, Hwange and RioZim maintained previous price levels at $0,0129 $0,0050, $0,0300 and $0,1040 respectively

. - BH24 Reporter ●

ZsE9

Low activity haunts industrial index

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MovERs CHANGE TodAy PRICE UsC sHAKERs CHANGE TodAy PRICE UsC

Powerspeed 4.54 2.30 ECONET -0.70 21.00

DAIRIBORD 0.71 6.90

INdEx PREvIoUs TodAy MovE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 112.21 112.18 -0.03 points -0.03%

MINING 21.82 21.82 +0.00 POINTS +0.00%

10 ZsE TABLEs

ZsE

INdICEs

stock Exchange

11 dIARy oF EvENTs

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

PowER GENERATIoN sTATs

Gen Station

12 January 2016

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 543 MW

Kariba 699 MW

Harare 0 MW

Munyati 28 MW

Bulawayo 0 MW

Imports 100-150 MW

Total 1291 Mw

21 January 2016 - CZI/Herald Business Annual Economic outlook 2016 Half day symposium; venue: Meikles Hotel, Harare; Time: 08:30 to 12:50hrs

THE BH24 dIARy

JoHANNEsBURG - South Afri-ca's rand remained on shaky ground against the dollar today after tumbling as much as 9 percent in the previous session over concerns about both the Chinese and local economies.

The JSE securities exchange's Top-40 futures index was down

0,97 percent, suggesting the local bourse would open more than 420 points lower at 0700 GMT.

At 0653 GMT, the rand traded 0,51 percent softer at 16,8850 per dollar compared with Mon-day's close.

The rand had fallen to a record 17,9950 during Asian trade on Monday, on fears that China wants to weaken its currency aggressively and boost its export competitiveness.

It fared worse than most of its emerging market peers, reflecting additional concerns about the direction of policy in Africa's most advanced but struggling economy after Pres-ident Jacob Zuma inexplicably fired the finance minister in December.

"One can only hope that in the shorter term, the market has become a little stretched from all this negativity so far this year and that we get a bit of a relief rally," Standard Bank trader Warrick Butler said.

In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark government bond maturing in 2026 added 5.5 basis points to 9,74 per-cent compared to Monday's close. It was however still far off the previous session's four-week high of 9,89 percent.

- Reuters●

REGIoNAL NEws 12

Rand still fragile after sharp fall at start of weekNigeria to sell 80

billion naira of bonds on Jan 20

LAGos - Nigeria said on Mon-day it will sell 80 billion naira ($402,92 million) worth of bonds denominated in the local currency at an auction on Jan. 20, its first debt auction of the year, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said.

The debt office said it will issue 40 billion naira each of bonds maturing in 2020 and 2026, using the Dutch auction sys-tem. The 2020 debt is a reo-pening of a previously issued bond. The 2026 debt is a fresh issue. Results of the auction are expected the next day.

Nigeria has proposed a plan to issue 260 billion to 390 billion naira in 5-, 10- and 20-year naira bonds in the first quarter of the year.

Nigeria said it will borrow about 900 billion naira locally to finance part of the 2,2 trillion naira deficit in its 2016 budget.

.- Reuters●

Oil extended declines from the lowest close in more than 12 years before US government data forecast to show crude supplies expanded, exacerbating a global glut.

Futures fell as much as 3,2 per-cent in New York after dropping 5,3 percent yesterday.

Stockpiles probably rose by 2 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg survey showed before a report from the Energy Infor-mation Administration Wednes-day. Iran will begin selling a new grade of crude as soon as March as it prepares to boost produc-tion once international sanc-tions blocking exports are lifted, according to an official at the country’s state-run oil company.

“When you have a supply over-hang, there’s going to be con-tinued downward pressure on prices,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Syd-ney, said by phone. “Investors are looking toward a difficult few months for oil, especially with Iran set to boost exports. We are likely to see production cuts at these prices, but they may take some months to come through.”

Oil slid more than 15 percent in

the previous six sessions, the biggest such drop in more than four years, as volatility in Chi-nese markets fueled a rout in global equities and US supplies remained about 100 million bar-rels above the five-year average. Brent crude, the global bench-mark, may trade in the $20s if the dollar rapidly gains, accord-ing to Morgan Stanley.

West Texas Intermediate for Feb-ruary delivery fell as much as $1 to $30,41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $30,65 at 7:48 a.m. Lon-don time. The contract dropped $1,75 to $31,41 on Monday, the lowest close since December 2003. Total volume traded was about 77 percent above the 100-day average. Prices lost 30 per-

cent last year.

oil supplies

Brent for February settlement lost as much as $1,12, or 3.6 percent, to $30,43 a barrel on the Lon-don-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract declined $2, or 6 percent, to $31,55 Mon-day, the lowest close since April 2004. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of 10 cents to WTI.

US crude stockpiles probably increased for the second time in three weeks, according to the survey. Gasoline inventories gained by 1,8 million barrels, the survey shows. Supplies of the motor fuel rose by 10,6 million barrels through Jan. 1, the most

since May 1993, according to data from the EIA.

Iran is increasing output at fields in the West Karoun region, near the Iraqi border, and most of the crude in the new blend will come from the Yadavaran, South Aza-degan and North Azadegan fields, the National Iranian Oil Co. offi-cial said, declining to be identi-fied due to company policy.

Estimates Cut

Oil is particularly leveraged to the dollar and may fall between 10 to 25 percent if the currency gains 5 percent, Morgan Stanley analysts including Adam Longson said in a research note dated Jan. 11. Societe Generale SA cut its average 2016 Brent forecast to $42,50 a barrel from $53,75 on Monday, while Bank of America Corp. trimmed its forecast to $46 a barrel from $50.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd. sees crude prices averaging $30 a bar-rel this year in its “low-price” sce-nario and warned the Malaysian state oil company faces two to three tough years. The company just two months ago forecast a 2016 average price of $48.- Bloomberg●

INTERNATIoNAL NEws 13

oil extends losses from 12-year low as stockpiles seen expanding

By Frank Holmes

Who says gold lost its appeal as a safe haven asset?

After five straight positive trading ses-sions, the yellow metal climbed above $1 100 on a weaker US dollar, its highest level in nine weeks. The rally proves that gold still retains its status as a safe haven among investors, who were motivated this week by a rocky Chinese stock market, North Korea’s announcement that it detonated a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday and rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Here in the US, gold finished 2015 down 10,42 percent, its third straight negative year. Until the new year, sen-timent appeared poor, and many gold bulls were finding it hard to stay opti-mistic.

But after the price jump this week, large exchange-traded gold funds saw massive inflows, confirming a shift in investors’ attitude toward the precious metal.

It’s worth remembering that about 90 percent of physical demand comes from outside the US, mostly in emerg-

ing markets such as China and India. In many non-dollar economies, buy-ers are actually seeing either a steady or even rising gold price.

The metal is up in Russia, Peru, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and many more. Note the differences in returns between gold priced in US dollars and gold priced in the Brazil-ian real, Turkish lira, Canadian dollar, Russian ruble and Indonesian rupiah.

Gold demand in China was very robust last year. A record 2,596.4 tonnes of the yellow metal, or a whopping 80 percent of total global output for 2015, were withdrawn from the Shanghai Gold Exchange. As for the Chinese central bank, it reported adding 19 more tonnes in December, bringing the total to over 1,762 tonnes.

Precious metals commentator Law-rie Williams points out, though, that China’s total reserve figure is widely believed to be “hugely understated,” meaning the central bank might very well have much more than we’re being told.

Forget Interest Rates—Real Rates Are the Key drivers of Gold

Despite all the talk of rising interest rates in connection to gold, they’re not a dominant driver of prices. Sure, rising nominal rates have tended to make the metal less attractive, since it doesn’t pay an income, but the larger driver by far are real interest rates. When real rates drop into negative territory, gold has historically done well.

As a reminder, real rates, important for the Fear Trade, are what you get when you subtract the consumer price index (CPI), or inflation, from the 10-year Treasury yield.

As of January 6, the 10-year yield was 2,18 percent, while the 12-month CPI for November—December data will be released later this month—came in at a barely-there 0,50 percent. Real rates, therefore, are running at a posi-tive 1,68 percent, which is a headwind for gold.

That’s why we need inflation to pick up, because then gold would be more likely to rally. Regardless, the World Gold Council (WGC) writes in its 2016 outlook that gold’s role as a diversifier remains “particularly relevant”:

Research shows that, over the long

run, holding 2 percent to 10 percent of an investor’s portfolio in gold can improve portfolio performance. The reason for this is that gold has tended to have a low correlation to many other asset classes, making it a val-uable diversifier. During economic contractions, for example, gold’s cor-relation to stocks actually decreased, according to data between 1987 and 2015.

For the last three years, gold has dis-appointed many because other invest-ments, specifically equities, have seen such huge gains. But with global markets hitting turbulence, the yellow metal is looking more attractive as insurance against the currency wars.

I always recommend 10 percent in gold: 5 percent in gold stocks or an actively-managed gold fund, 5 per-cent in bullion and/or jewelry. It’s also important to rebalance every year.

This should be the case in both good times and bad, whether gold is rising or falling. As highly influential invest-ment expert Ray Dalio said last year: “If you don’t own gold, you know nei-ther history nor economics.” - Mining.com●

14 analysis14 ANALysIs

How gold got its groove back