Zimbabwe Energy Investment Growing, Minister Says

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00:00Having exploration by Australian company in gas and oil in our Northeast and the

00:08gas findings are looking very very good and what we now need our investment in

00:13beneficiation that will contribute to our gas supply in many industries but

00:20particularly in electricity and so we look forward to that in addition we have

00:26coal bed methane gas which has been partially explored and when I was in New

00:32York last week the Minister of Finance and I were discussing with the investors

00:37who want to look at coal bed methane gas we have plenty of it also and we think

00:43that will also bring in the gas sector what sort of well what sort of investors

00:48were you speaking to in New York in New York we're speaking to stand-alone funds

00:54as well as corporate funds from non-multilaterale funds we are not

01:02accessing funds from AGV or or well bank except for administrative and or

01:09feasibility studies because of our situation but there are funders including

01:15the African Afro Exit Bank who and other banks who are willing to fund us Qatar is

01:22one of them which are which is looking at funding us has have any of those funds

01:26been dispersed from the Qataris well Afro Afro Afro Afro Exit Bank has been

01:32dispersing to us that's a fraction but the Qataris specifically no not yet not yet

01:37not yet do do you have a timeline for when that might happen I cannot give you

01:43timeline but I know that negotiations with the Minister of Finance and our Tapa fund

01:48those are now taking place and we hope that they will let bear fruit do you

01:53expect to receive those funds we expect to receive you do yeah and so then what

02:00would that mean for the investment into Zimbabwe's energy sector I think the

02:05chances from our discussions we had an outreach in you in New York we had an

02:12outreach in Washington we had an outreach in in London and some of the investors

02:19for instance in solar from our London meetings once we signed here in in Cape

02:26Town we signed a government project support agreement with the British and

02:32that is energized some of the British companies and other companies from all

02:37over to comment and invest and besides our regime for de-risking was supported by

02:45the African Union which gave us lawyers who could look at our regime and say how

02:51can we strengthen to give the confidence to investors and this government

02:59project support agreement that we signed and it is signed between between the

03:07investor and ourselves the Minister of Finance and myself signed that and the

03:12Reserve Bank says it gives a little comfort to say hey come and invest you

03:18will pay for your dividend we will pay for your capital equipment and we will give

03:25you national project status so that is energized those who want to invest knowing

03:33fully well our regime were there certain conditions that had to be met in order

03:39to get that sign that agreement well we of course if you are coming to invest in

03:45Zimbabwe and then you are ending dependent power producer or a captive power

03:50producer we want you to have a license with our regulatory authority which will

03:54also reform it so that it can take quick decisions and then you sign a power

04:00purchase agreement or a willing agreement with the utility which is CESA and the

04:07grid impact assessment is done the environmental impact assessments are done

04:11once you have this and you have your financing you are ready to go so it's in a

04:16good you would say it was it's in a stable place the energy sector within the

04:20country we think that the energy sector is now one of the prime investable areas

04:26compared to previous years compared to previous years we have seen our our

04:31pension funds and our insurance companies and banks which used to pension

04:37funds used to invest in brick and mortar now they found it is easier it is

04:42better to get money by investing in energy

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