MafAfrique targets SADC region with Zimbabwe office
Advisory and fund management group, MafAfrique is set to open a new regional presence in Zimbabwe, located at the heart of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
The presence expected by third quarter of 2018, will enable MafAfrique to work more closely with the region’s mining, energy and integrated agribusiness players to scale up their businesses for export to both the European Union (EU) and key Africa markets.
"Traditionally, SADC region has always had a comparative advantage in mining however with the recent economic and political developments, the presence in Zimbabwe will open up new opportunities for our advisory and fund management business as we work to exploit fully the benefits offered initially under the SADC - EU - EPA agreements and eventually to the rest of the African continent,"Co-founder and Chairman of the firm Byron Mudhune said.
"With estimated 80 percent of the Zimbabwean economy in the hands of business across a range of sectors from mining, exporting and agriculture, we shall be combining our strategy development and access to financing, to accelerate growth and drive operational improvements to transform under-optimized enterprises into regional leaders. A lot of the opportunities offered to these businesses under EU-SADC Economic Partnership (EPA) agreement are also still unexploited,” he added.
Mr. Mudhune said the recent economic and political developments refers to Zimbabwe’s new political leadership that is open to business under which broad and necessary reforms have already been put in place to position Zimbabwe as an attractive investment destination.
This, coupled with the economic transformation under EU -SADC-EPA agreement that has placed Zimbabwe enterprises at the centre of integration into the EU-SADC value chain has allowed such enterprises to put together products from components from various countries within the region without risk of losing free access to the EU market and eventually to the rest of the African market.
With Mozambique recently joining the EU – SADC- EPA agreement, EU is bound to be SADC-EPA group’s largest trading partner opening up further opportunities for businesses to significantly scale up their export business.
