advertising supplement to Zimbabwe independent august 21 to 27, 2015 b1

2015 Winter School“Expanding Horizons, Elevating Minds – Unlocking Zimbabwe’s Investment & Tourism Potential”

Supplement compiled by tariSai mandizha/ todd chikomo/betty mpala

econet Wireless Zimbabwe group chief finance of-ficer roy chimanikire has been elected the new president of the institute of chartered accountants of Zimbabwe (icaz).

He takes over from ta Holdings group chief finan-cial officer Bothwell nyajeka who served a one year term.

chimanikire, who joined econet in 2009 from de-loitte where he was a partner, was icaz’s senior vice-president for the past year.

He is a qualified chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of accounting science (Honours) degree from the university of south africa and a certificate in the Theory of accounting from icaz.

chimanikire will be deputised by gloria Zvaravan-hu, who is nicozdiamond’s general manager, cor-porate services and company secretary while martin makaya is a partner at Bdo Zimbabwe chartered ac-countants, is the new junior vice president.

Zvaravanhu is a qualified chartered accountant, and a member of both icaz and south african institute of chartered accountants.

she holds a master’s degree in Business leader-ship from unisa and a Bachelor’s degree in account-ancy from rhodes university in south africa.

Zvaravanhu started her accounting career at Kpmg chartered accountants where she did her articles.

makaya, a chartered accountant, is a partner at Bdo Zimbabwe chartered accountants, and he holds a Bachelor of commerce in accounting Honours de-gree obtained from the national university of science and technology. He also holds a post-graduate di-ploma in applied accountancy from the university of Zimbabwe.

chimanikire is a member of the institute of char-tered accountants of Zimbabwe (icaz) council, the supreme body that runs the affairs of all chartered accountants in Zimbabwe.

icaz is a membership-based body that relies to a large extent on subscriptions. icaz contributes to the financial and economic infrastructure of Zimbabwe by providing accountancy training and education for both its students and members. The organisation cur-rently has 1 800 members. according to icaz annual report 2015, to date the institute has trained over 7 000 students since the institute was set up in 1918.

speaking at a gala dinner in dubai, chimanikire said he was humbled to be the new icaz president.

“it is our institute. let’s participate and let’s con-tinue to make it relevant for the 100 years to come,” he said. “i want to encourage everyone to be very much involved in the activities of the institute.

“as i take this presidency, i would like to thank everyone who supported me, especially my number one fan, my wife, who is not with us tonight (sunday), but where ever she is i believe she is cheering. she called me to say well done, congratulations.

“and to fellow members, i say it is our time to shine, it is time to create unique experiences for ourselves.”

speaking at the same event, outgoing icaz presi-dent, nyajeka said the past year had been an exciting journey which held good memories.

He thanked everyone who contributed to the suc-cess of icaz.

“in the past year we wanted to see how the insti-tute can remain relevant. two investor conferences have been held during my term — one in polokwane, south africa, and another one here in dubai,” he said.

He added that the institute was engaging indus-try and commerce minister mike Bimha with the aim of resuscitating ailing parastatals and also to train government employees to be good chartered accountants.

Chimanikire is the new Icaz president

Icaz president, Roy Chimanikire

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Icaz to transform into a global brandTHE Institute of Chartered Account-ants of Zimbabwe (Icaz) says it has a vision to grow beyond Zimbabwe and transform itself into a global brand, chief executive officer Matts Kunaka has said.

Icaz is a statutory body incorporat-ed in terms of the Chartered Account-ants Act which aims to contribute to the financial and economic infrastruc-ture of Zimbabwe by providing ac-countancy training and education for both its students and members.

The organisation currently has 1 800 members.

Kunaka told delegates at the Icaz winter school in Dubai recently that he had a vision for Icaz which goes beyond Zimbabwe. Icaz currently has four chapters.

“When we go global, students in China will be writing Icaz exams,” he said.

Kunaka said there were a number of issues which should be looked into which include the training of students and the rewriting of all the exams if one fails one or more.

“At the moment it takes longer to train a chartered accountant than it takes to train a medical doctor.

“In England and Wales when stu-dents write exams, they keep what they have passed and re-write what they failed.

“In Zimbabwe if a student fails, he or she writes all exams,” he said.

According to Icaz annual report 2015, to date the institute has trained over 7 000 students since it opened its doors in 1918.

Kunaka said the institute would

continue to give input to the Finance minister to en-sure chartered accountants’ views were solicited in budget formulation.

He added that Icaz was working on plans to mobilise resources from Diasporans to invest in Zimbabwe.

“We want to mobilise funds to invest in Zimba-bwe and in the next five years to be able to come to Dubai to review how much investment has been made,” he said.

The Institute of Chartered Accountant of England and Wales Middle East Office regional director Mike

Armstrong said the overall strategy to grow globally was to support other regional offices.

The office provides support to more than 1 200 members and students, and works closely with gov-ernments, regulators, key stakeholders and other professional bodies,” Armstrong said.

Leaders of Icaz, ICAEW (UK), Icai (India) and Icap (Pakistan) explore strategies for global expansion

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Icaz Supplement

Winter School held in foreign landThe talk of hosting an ICAZ Winter School in a for-eign land was pie in the sky, a fascinating idea with a remote chance of happening any time soon.

The ICAZ bylaws themselves were pretty much clear on the matter — the annual AGM could not take place outside the borders of Zimbabwe. Incred-ibly, 15 months later, that dream has become reality and history has been made!

It took bold courage from a small group of pas-sionate and driven young Zimbabwean chartered accountants based in Dubai, United Arab emirates to turn what appeared to be a crazy idea to into reality.

In one of our articles leading up to the confer-ence we referred to ourselves as the “Crazy Gang”. This was an apt description of the organising team made up of armatures and novices with no experi-ence of hosting an event of this magnitude. however the determination and desire to succeed did see us through.

The big question remains as to why we took up the challenge to host the first Winter School outside Zimbabwe and particularly in Dubai?

The demographic spread of our members with al-most half of them in the diaspora meant that ICAZ could no longer afford to operate as a Zimbabwe fo-cused institute if it was to remain relevant to all its members.

There was a desperate need to re-engage with the diaspora members and return them to active participation.

Secondly, we saw this as an opportunity to show-case Zimbabwe and the quality of its people, and to provide an opportunity for government and industry leadership to tell the world of the enormous invest-ment and tourism opportunities in the country.

Dubai already had a distinct advantage over other locations. It is a natural tourist destination, a cen-tral travel hub easily reachable from any part of the world with one flight. Most importantly, the success story of the United Arab emirates and Dubai in par-ticular, over such a rapidly short period of time is well documented.

There was therefore an excellent opportunity for our members to see and learn from the amazing Dubai miracle. It was this in mind that we coined the conference theme “expanding horizons, elevating Minds — Unlocking Zimbabwe’s Investment & Tour-ism Potential”.

I believe we have laid the foundation building blocks in promoting brand Zimbabwe in the UAe, its investments and tourism opportunities and the quality of its people.

Of course there should be no expectation of an immediate return. This is a process whose benefits will be reaped in the future. I also strongly believe that the Dubai Winter School experience will go a long way on elevating the minds of the Zimba-bwean CA and provide a fresh outlook to issues and challenges.

To the ICAZ council, I would like to express my profound gratitude for showing your faith in the Crazy Gang and approving the Dubai Winter School proposal. The easiest thing would have been to say no, but you decided to take the leap of faith with us. I also congratulate the Mashonaland District chapter for articulately presenting our proposal to the council on our behalf. And to the secretariat team I also say a big thank you! We did put you under a lot of pres-sure but your remained steadfast in your support.

To the UAe Chapter organizing team, Nyasha, Gideon, Patson, Liz, Audrey, Simba, Takura, David, and Farai, you should be proud of your efforts! Well done!

In conclusion I say a big thank you to all the del-egates. Without your support, the Dubai Winter School project would have remained a dream!

The Icaz secretariat team grossly engaged in the gala dinner proceedings.

UAE Chapter chairman Bernard Tapera chronicles the journey by the Chapter in hosting the first Winter School outside Zimbabwe

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Grant Thornton congratulates the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) on the election of a new presidium. We wish Roy Chimanikire, Gloria Zvaravanhu and Martin Makaya all the best during their tenure and we are confident they will bring continued success to ICAZ.

Mr Roy Chimanikire President - ICAZ

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Outgoing Icaz president Bothwell Nyajeka

INVESTORS, business executives and accountants from 18 countries around attended the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (Icaz) Win-ter School in Dubai which sought to showcase investment and tourism op-portunities in Zimbabwe and to attract investment into the country.

� e winter school, ran from August 6 to 10 under the theme “Expanding Horizons, elevating minds-unlocking Zimbabwe’s investment and tourism potential”.

Icaz is a statutory body incorporated in terms of the Chartered Accountants Act, chapter 27:02 which aims to con-tribute to the fi nancial and economic infrastructure of Zimbabwe by provid-ing accountancy training and education for both its students and members.

Nearly 400 members and guests from 18 countries which included Aus-tralia, Bermuda, Burundi, Canada, Cayman Islands, United Kingdom, United States of America, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, were present at the conference.

Bothwell Nyajeka, the outgoing Icaz president, said the winter school was an opportunity to market Zimbabwe, to be inspired, to attract tourists and to bring foreign direct investment into the country. In his address Nyajeka said:

“I welcome you all to the Dubai winter school, our fi rst winter school outside Zimbabwe, under the theme Expanding horizons, Elevating minds, unlocking Zimbabwe’s investment and Tourism potential.

We are looking forward to wonderful hospitality from Dubai, but most of all we want to be inspired to do business, to attract tourist and to bring FDI into Zimbabwe.

It is our duty to make it work, fo-rums like this enable us to open our minds and think” .

He added that he hoped from this conference that delegates would see, learn and be able to act.

Speaking at the same event, Icaz United Arab Emirates (UAE) chapter chairperson Bernard Tapera said it was a dream come true for him and his team to have successfully brought the winter school to Dubai.

Winter School attracts 18 countries in Dubai

Some of the countries represented at the Winter School.

“As a chapter it is our sincere hope that our minds as Zimbabweans CAs and captains of industry will be elevated through interaction and listening to pres-entations from individuals behind Dubai success story.

“We have put together an excellent blend of Zimbabwean and Dubai based speakers and panellist and in addition we have also included some of our own di-aspora based members.”

Notable speakers at the confer-ence included the Minister of industry and Commerce Mike Bimha, Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Walter Mzembi, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe deputy gov-ernor Kupukile Mlambo, Zia chairper-son Nigel Chanakira, CEO of Atlas Mara CEO John Vtalo, Dubai Financial Services Authority associate director Nawwed Lalani, India Institute of Chartered Ac-countants secretary Narveen Sharma and Institute of Chartered Accountants England, Wales (ICAEW) Middle East of-fi ce regional director Mike Armstrong and Afreximbank executive vice president Denys Denya .

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The New ICAZ Presidium. It

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Congratulations to the new ICAZ President, Roy Chimanikire, the new

Senior Vice President, Gloria Zvaravanhu and the new Junior Vice

President, Martin Makaya.

KPMG is proud of our association and we extend every good wish

for a distinguished and successful year ahead.

Roy ChimanikireICAZ President

Martin MakayaJunior Vice President.

Gloria ZvaravanhuSenior Vice President

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Congratulations to the ICAZ Presidium for 2015 Wishing you all a successful year

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Roy ChimanikirePresident

Gloria ZaravanhuSenior Vice President

Martin MakayaJunior Vice President

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch

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Accountants urged to assist govt on funding industryindustrY and Commerce minister mike Bimha has challenged the institute of Chartered accountants of Zimbabwe (icaz) to advise government on how it can fund the industrial sector.

Bimha told delegates at the icaz Winter school in dubai last week that Zimbabwe had huge investment opportunities but these were being hampered by lack of funding. “There are some good things going on out there and we should continue to send the positive messages,” Bimha said.

“icaz should come up with strategies to assist industry in arranging funding. We need funding and we don’t have the funding locally, but i am sure there are some ideas that you come up with for arranging funding. We want your members to join government and bring in your tech-nical knowhow to the table during policy formulation.”

Zimbabwe’s industrial sector is currently facing a lot of challenges which include high cost of production, short-age of electricity and limited lines of credit to replace ob-solete equipment to become effective.

according to latest statistics, the manufacturing sec-tor has recorded a 1,9% increase in capacity utilisation to 39%, driven by activities in the beverages and construc-tion sectors. in the same period in 2014, capacity utilisa-tion was 37, 1%. Capacity utilisation for the manufactur-ing sector took off in 2009 at around 10% and rose to 57, 2% in 2011. since then it has been on a downward trend.

speaking at the same event, Zimbabwe investment authority (Zia) chairperson nigel Chanakira said icaz members who were working in various countries had the capacity to lure investors to Zimbabwe.

“We from the Zia would like to tell you that we are ready to get investment from you. We have gone a long way to reduce the cost of investing in Zimbabwe. Quite clearly, we see that us$28 billion is well within our target to tune in investment, but we can’t do it alone,” Chana-kira said.

reserve Bank of Zimbabwe deputy governor Kupukile mlambo said Zimbabwe was much open to foreign in-vestment as demonstrated by the commitment to re-engage with the international creditor community as well as efforts to make investment policies more flexible.

“The authorities remain committed to taking all possi-ble steps to ensure that the country achieves sustainable economic growth and becomes part of the africa’s ris-ing story. The government of Zimbabwe is ready to con-sider foreign investment in all sectors of the economy,” mlambo said.

Industry and Commerce minister Mike Bimha has urged Icaz to formulate strategies to assist the industrial sector.

Some of the delegates at the investors’ cocktail

iCaZ SUppLement

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The Partnership and Staff of BDO Zimbabwe, would like to congratulate Roy Chimanikire, Gloria Zvaravanhu and Martin Makaya on their election into the ICAZ Presidium.

We wish them success and prosperity during their tenure!

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The Partners, Management & Staff of AMG Global congratulate

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as President, Senior Vice President & Junior Vice President respectively.

The AMG Global family wishes them every success in their term in office.

Mr Chimanikire

Ms Zvaravanhu Mr Makaya

THE Minister of Tourism and Hospi-tality Walter Mzembi has said Zim-babweans in the diaspora are best-placed to be eff ective tourism am-bassadors for Zimbabwe.

� ere are various estimates on the number of Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

� e United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates these at between 3 and 4 million that is more than the populations of coun-tries like Botswana, Namibia, or Singapore.

It is estimated that about 50% of all Zimbabwean professionals have emigrated since 2000, which places the country in 10th position out of 157 countries that experience migration at this level of ‘brain drain’.

Mzembi told delegates at the Icaz winter school in Dubai recently that Zimbabwean diasporans can also provide a stream of visitors to the country during off -peak season for foreign visitors in general if they can be off ered special packages, there-by raising the capacity utilisation throughout the year.

“Whilst migration has long been a characteristic of societies, the last two centuries have witnessed the mass mobility of populations, with millions of people moving across the planet to take up new lives in new places Originally conceived and re-ferred to as, populations living in ex-ile, the concept of Diaspora has more recently been popularized as it con-cerns mass migration in general and can be a big source for both invest-ment capital as well as international arrivals,” Mzembi said.

“For example, Ghana is well known to have succeeded in their Diasporas Engagement Programme after front-ing tourism, to the extent that in 2010 it racked in US$2,12 billion in various remittance from abroad.”

He said government intends to rapidly develop and diversify the country’s tourism product, for both domestic as well as international market purposes.

“In doing so, we will be informed by the needs and trends in the globe’s leading tourism source mar-kets, as well as by our desire to grow intra-African and domestic tourism.

“In order to achieve its US$5 bil-lion target Zimbabwe badly needs to broaden and diversify its tourism product base. It is one thing to have tourism resources, natural or cultur-al, but it is quite another to convert them into tourism products.

� e wild life lions, rhinos, snakes, the waterfalls, hot springs and other natural phenomena are resources we will mount urgent programmes to turn them into attractive tour-ism products, in order to achieve the US$5 billion target,” he said.

Mzembi said the Ministry of Tour-ism and Hospitality was working to-wards the plans to grow tourism re-ceipts to US$5 billion by 2020 aided by favourable government policies.

“By taking all the measures clearly detailed above Zimbabwe can easily achieve its US$5billion tourism rev-enue target by 2020.

� e planned re-branding of Des-tination Zimbabwe; the forecast expansion of international tourism markets on the back of the grow-ing middle-class in the Brics (Bra-zil, Russia, India,China, South Frica) countries; and the on-going diversi-fi cation of the Zimbabwean tourism product, all combine to make it very possible to achieve the said target,” he said.

He said the US$5 billion tour-ism revenue target by 2020 will be achieved in stages were in 2015 US$1 billion, 2016 US$1,5 billion, 2017 US$2 billion, 2018 US$3 billion, 2019 US4 billion and 2020 US$5 billion.

He added that there were two critical coanditions that the country must meet in order for the above targets to be achieved, Zimbabwe must rapidly re-brand and improve its country image in the eyes of the international community and that the sector’s critical enablers must be ca-pacitated to play their part.

Hon. Walter Muzembi making a passion fi lled outline of the vision for the tourism industry in Zimbabwe.

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Diasporans best-placed as tourism ambassadors

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Local banks deposit US$126m surplusZIMBABWEAN banks deposited a total of US$126 million as surplus as at July 31 this year as the liquid-ity situation in the sector improves, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) deputy governor Kupukile Mlambo has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Institute of Chartered Accountancy of Zimbabwe (Icaz) Winter School at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, Mlambo said the deposits would be guaranteed under the Afrex-imbank US$100 million and will enable banks to bor-row funds at lower rates.

“Right now private sources of fi nancing are con-strained by low savings and lack of cheap and long-term capital,” he said.

Mlambo said there was need to grow long term deposits.

“… Of the US$5,6 billion deposits recorded as at end of June 2015, about US$3,1 billion was in the form of demand deposits, which were relatively short-term in nature, thus constraining the capac-ity of the banking sector to meet long-term funding requirements,” he said.

� e current corporate lending in Zimbabwe ranges between 9% and 29% while the default penalties range between 19% and 43,5%, Mlambo said.

According to the recent Monetary Policy State-ment, RBZ and the Bankers Association of Zim-babwe have agreed on guidelines for lending rates were lending to the productive sectors for prime borrowers with low credit risk will have interest rates set at between 6% and 10% per annum.

Under the new terms, eff ective October 1, 2015 for both existing and new borrowers, those with mod-erate credit risk will access loans at rates between 10% and 12% per annum, while borrowers with high credit risk will get loans at between 12% and 18% interest per annum.

Interest rates on housing fi nance will be pegged at between 8% and 16% per annum while default rate on consumptive lending of between 3% and 8% will be charged above the initial interest rate to the borrower.

Mlambo however said the RBZ has been taking pre-emptive and corrective measures to ensure that the fi nancial sector remains safe and sound. “In this regard, a huge milestone has been archived in the country’s banking and fi nancial sector. � e RBZ Debt Assumption Bill has been signed into law; all the banks have surpassed the US$25 million threshold and are now adequately capitalized.

“We have taken decisive action on weak, dis-tressed and troubled banking institutions and closed those that were not viable. We have established the Zamco (Zimbabwe Asset Management Company) to deal with NPLS (non-performing loans) in the banking system which had creeped to unsustainable levels of around 25%, created the credit reference system which will help prevent further build-up of NPLs,” Mlambo said.

He added that resuscitation of the interbank market and mechanisms for secondary trading had greatly improved liquidity in the economy, while the introduction of bond coins to buttress the multiple currency system also helped prices to correct them-selves downward.

� ese measures, together with demonetisation of the Zimbabwean dollar, had resulted in a much more sound and stable banking system capable of mobilising long-term funding to fi nance economic recovery and growth.

“At the same time the bank is working with all the relevant stakeholders and government to create an active bond market.

“Deep and liquid bond markets are essential for a country to enter a sustained phases of development, driven by market determined capital allocation. � is will give avenues for the likes of Old Mutual and Nssa to actively fi nance Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.”

RBZ deputy governor Kupikile Mlambo

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We judge our success on how we have helped you succeed.ZB congratulates the new ICAZ President, Roy Chimanikire, the new Senior Vice

President, Gloria Zvaravanhu and the new Junior Vice President, Martin Makaya.

We are proud of our professional relationship and wish you a very successful tenure.

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Roy Chimanikire Martin Makaya

Gloria Zvaravanhu

ZUMBANI Capital, the investment vehi-cle that owns 46% in ZSE listed companies Masimba and Proplastics, has commended government’s willingness to engage and lis-ten to other stakeholders as an indicator that the country is making eff orts to become competitive.

One of the company’s non-executive di-rectors, Sam Sithole, said many investors around the world have been shunning Zimba-bwe as a safe investment destination due to a number of reasons, key among them be-ing the lack of clarity and clear policy over indigenisation.

� e Indigenisation law was passed in 2007 and requires that foreign-owned companies worth more than US$500 000 sell at least 51% of their shareholding to locals.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Icaz Win-ter School held recently in Dubai, Sithole said there appears now to be willingness from government to make sure the environment becomes competitive and this was a good sign for Zimbabwe.

“I think we are starting to see that, the fact that the minister can come here and make a presentation, listening to people.

“Hopefully things should start to change as the minister has said they is going to be more clarity around indigenisation. � ese are all positive steps.

“Remember capital is a very important but nervous commodity; when people put their money in they don’t want to have any doubts on whether the law will change, on whether their money will still be safe.

“Investors desire a stable environment, with predictable and clear laws, but it’s a journey,” Sithole said.

Zumbani Capital as an investment vehi-cle was still cautious in terms of investing in Zimbabwe but at the moment has 46% shareholding in Masimba Holdings, as well as another 46% shareholding in recently listed Proplastics.

“Zumbani is a consortium between for-eign investors and local partners, including chief executive offi cer of Masimba Canada Malunga.

When Zumbani bought into Masimba, the company had outstanding debt of around US$5 million, and this has now reduced to below US$2 million, as the business has been generating enough cash to pay off the debt and invest in other areas of the business.

“What I think is more strategic for Zumbani Capital is its ability to assist with capital rais-ing for the two businesses going forward.

� e international investors in Zumbani have access to relationships with international banks in South Africa and beyond, enabling the two companies to fund sizeable, viable projects in future due to the ability to source aff ordable funding,” he said.

Sithole said Zumbani Capital has no other investments in Zimbabwe except Masimba and Proplastics, saying that its investment in Masimba is more of an opportunistic option, awaiting the recovery of the construction in-dustry once the funding environment in Zim-babwe improves.

He said in a few years there was likely to be massive opportunities in the construction sector when Zimbabwe turns around, with roads and the bridges that will need to be both repaired and constructed.

He however said the decision to separate Masimba and Proplastics was ideal consid-ering the current operating environment in Zimbabwe.

“But at the moment Zumbani Capital has decided to separate the old Masimba into two separate businesses, with the newly unbun-dled Proplastics being more of a cash busi-ness due to its short working capital cycles, while Masimba relies on long term projects, which are currently limited in the local market.

� is is why it made sense for the direc-tors to list the two businesses separately and allow them to operate independent of each other,” he said.

“I think both companies are good compa-nies with good management but the current macro environment is presently not condu-cive for the construction sector.

� e same scenario is being experienced in the South African market, where construction companies are struggling at the moment.

Zumbani Capital is an investment hold-ing company focused on driving sustainable long-term growth and value creation in its in-vestment portfolio.

Zumbani in for a long-term

Brait finance director Sam Sithole

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Dubai Winter school a success: Kunaka ICAZ successfully hosted its Winter school in Dubai last week. Todd Chikomo of the Zimbabwe Independent interviewed Icaz CEO Matts Kunaka on the growth of the institute and its plans for the future. Below are excerpts:

TC: You recently held an unprecedented Winter school in Grand Hyatt Dubai .What motivated you to come up with an idea to form the Icaz chapter in Dubai and how did you convince oth-er stakeholders to come on board?

MK: The Winter school was the first to be held outside the country in the history of the Institute. The leadership considered Dubai because it is strategically placed for members coming from different parts of the world. The chapter was formed by our members who are in that part of the country. We visited them with the then presi-dent in 2013 to encourage them. The chapters are there for members of the Institute in those parts of the world to network and receive CPD (Continuing Professional Development). They can also channel their ideas to the Institute via the

chapters.It was easy to convince the stakeholders in

that about half of our members are practic-ing outside Zimbabwe. This was a way to meet

them halfway. The other major reason was that we were going to use the Winter school to drum up support for Zimbabwe as an excellent tourist destination and a good home for foreign direct investment (FDI). I believe we manage to achieve both objectives.

Government saw it as an excellent opportunity to meet stakeholders who would otherwise not come to Zimbabwe and market the country to them. We had the Tourism minister and Industry minister who got opportunities to explain gov-ernment policy and dispel any myths about the country.

TC: Is Icaz evolving in any way, especially in light of the technological developments that are rife in this digital age and do you think the Insti-tute has done enough to influence policy at a na-tional level?

MK: Traditionally, people see accountants as conservative. However, the Institute has made strides to keep astride with technological devel-opments especially in the social media space. Our members are chief financial officers and fi-nance directors in commerce and industry and

this helps shape the future of Icaz. The Institute is now on Linkedin, Twitter and has recently in-vested in an improved database which enables it to be interactive with its members especially those in the diaspora. The Institute, through its Tax and Other Legislation Committee (Tolc) always makes input to the Finance minister through proposals submitted to it after dialoging with members. This is done before every budget announcement by the Finance minister. Obvi-ously the Institute can only offer its ideas and it is up to the government to take those ideas on board or defer them to a later time. The Institute wants to grow this influence by having more CAs in government as currently they are concentrated in the private sector.

TC: What are your future plans and where do you see Icaz in the next five years?

MK: We have a strategic plan for the period 2015-2018 and that combined with the direction given by the executive team in office and coun-cil will determine where the Institute goes in the next 5 years. I would like to see us taping into the collective experience and brainpower of CAs in the diaspora for the benefit of the Institute and the country as a whole. I would like to see the Institute having taken steps to localise the ex-amination system. Currently, there is a commit-tee of Council which is ceased with the task. The Accountancy Centre of Excellence should have taken shape in five years’ time and there will be a number of CAs working for government and Icaz will be actively involved in training accountants for the public sector.

TC: Do you see Zimbabwe attracting investors as a result of this conference?

MK: It is early days yet but judging from the interaction at the Investors’ cocktail which was sponsored by Areximbank, it will not be surprising if major investments take place directly as a re-sult of this initiative. We believe that the platform enabled misconceptions and negative percep-tions to be ironed out and the correct information was given to potential investors and tourists. Icaz has taken the view that we need to work to see investment taking place in the country. This will create opportunities for our members in practice as well as those in commerce and industry. This is a second investors’ conference held by Icaz fol-lowing the one held last year in Polokwane.

Mr Denys Denya from Afreximbank said Zim-babwe was among their best performers in Africa and that the bank never lost any money on the transactions they did in Zimbabwe. That should have convinced anyone who was in doubt about investing in Zimbabwe.

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (Zia), Dr Nigel Chanakira talked about the changes being implemented to make it eas-ier for investors to invest in Zimbabwe. We have also come up with a booklet on doing business in Zimbabwe in collaboration with Zia, we will follow through the discussions and recommendations that came from the ministries represented at the conference on how we can enhance our role in attracting investors.

TC: Can you tell us about yourself, who is Matts Kunaka, the man who has been at the helm of Icaz?

MK: Matts Tich Kunaka is a senior citizen who is the father of five (three of whom are grown up graduates) and grandfather of two. I am a Christian and God has been good to me hav-ing allowed me to turn 61 years last July. After graduating with a B.Acc (Hons) degree from the University of Zimbabwe in 1978, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983. Initially I wanted to be a doctor but I do not regret being a Char-tered Accountant instead. I did an MBA in the United states in 1986 and went to work for KPMG in London for four years returning home in 1990 and immediately joined Coopers and Lybrand (now EY) as a Managing Consultant in the small Computers Advisory services (sCAs).

In January 1992 left EY to join Delta as Finance Director of Chibuku Breweries where I stayed for 7 years before joining OK Zimbabwe as Opera-tions Director. I left OK in 1998 to join Zimpapers as Group CEO. With my new team, we turned around the printing operations to profitability.

After leaving Zimpapers in October 2000 I joined Icaz briefly as CEO while lecturing in the MBA programme at UZ at the same time. I stud-ied for an Msc in strategic Management with the University of Derby part-time graduating in 2000.

I became CEO of the Independent Media Group before starting my own Asset Manage-ment Company.

I left the RBZ in 2011 and was appointed CEO of ICAZ where I have been since 2011 till now. My passion is in assisting others to succeed in life.

Icaz CEO Matts Kunaka

ADvERTIsING sUPPLEMENT TO the zImbabwe Independent AUGUsT 21 TO 27, 2015 b9

ICAZ SUPPLEMENTb10 advertising supplement to ThE ZIMbAbwE INdEPENdENT august 21 to 27, 2015

‘Zim should capitalise on vast land’Zimbabwe should use its vast agricultural land to trade with dubai in the agriculture sector and can lease out some parts of it to the emirate, an economist with a leading bank has said.

dubai is the second-largest city of the unit-ed arab emirates (uae), a federation of seven emirates which has been transformed from a desert to become one of the world influen-tial destinations with its economy mainly being driven by oil and tourism.

addressing delegates at the institute for Chartered accountants of Zimbabwe (iCaZ) in dubai, emirates ndb sector economist athana-sios tsetsonis said Zimbabwe should lease out some of its land to dubai, which does not have adequate farming land.

emirates ndb is one of the largest banks in the middle east and north africa.

“given the current situation in Zimbabwe, we know at the moment you have a struggling economy. in terms of agriculture in dubai there are joint venture opportunities with the uae farms. but due to the vast land in Zimbabwe, dubai can use Zimbabwe’s land to boost the trade between Zimbabwe and uae,” tsetsonis said.

tsetsonis said uae had an open economy with a high per capita income and a sizeable annual trade surplus. successful efforts at eco-nomic diversification have reduced the portion of gross domestic product (gdp) based on oil and gas output to 25%.

He said the government had increased spending on job creation and infrastructure ex-pansion, and was opening up utilities to greater private sector involvement.

tsetsonis said uae’s free trade zones — of-fering 100% foreign ownership and zero taxes — was helping to attract foreign investors.

“wholesale and trade is the largest contribu-tor to the economy, 2,7% in 2014 to 3,5% year on year in 2013,” he said.

“tourism hospitality investment provides an important boost for retail expansion. dubai’s average occupancy average 78,7% in 2014 down from 80,2% in 2013, while hotels in dubai are expected to outpace demand in the next few years.”

He said uae gdp composition, by sector of origin was estimated at — agriculture 0,6%, in-dustry 58,9%, service 40,5%.

uae has a population of 9,3 million people, of which 1,4 million are emirati and 7,8 million are expatriates. it had a gdp per capital of us$64 500 in 2014.

according to the investing in Zimbabwe over-view — 2015, Zimbabwe’s agriculture is divided into two parts — industrialised farming of crops such as cotton, tobacco, coffee, peanuts, and various fruits and subsistence farming with sta-ple crops such as maize or wheat.

according to the summary, the former was almost exclusively in the hands of the white mi-nority until the land redistribution programme that started in 2000, and this part of the ag-ricultural economy was highly profitable with large amounts of produce exported.

Panelists discussing necessary ingredients for attracting FDI into Zimbabwe.

Athanasios Tsetsonis, Sector Economist, Emirates NBD (the largest bank in Dubai by market capitalisation).

icaz supplement in picturesadvertising supplement to the zimbabwe independent august 21 to 27, 2015 b11

Outgoing Icaz president Bothwell Nyajeka (left) hands over power to incoming president Roy Chimanikire.

UAE Chapter Winter School organising committee receives an appreciation shield from Icaz senior vice-president Gloria Zvaravanhu.

Master of Ceremony Tawanda Gumbo kept delegates engaged throughout the conference. Icaz secretariat team grossly engages with the gala dinner proceedings.

Fun in the sand! The excited looks on the faces say it all. A spot of camel ride by some elated delegates.

Two belly dancers in action. Delegates take to the stage at the end of the formal gala dinner programme.

B12 advertising supplement to the ZimBaBwe independent august 21 to 27, 2015