Online published on 27 March, 2014.
In 2011 the Zimbabwe government launched the Zimbabwe Economic Trade Revival Facility [ZETREF] and the Distressed and Marginalized Areas Fund [DIMAF] to stimulate the economy by merely rescuing the manufacturing sector.
The Zimbabwean government came up with initiatives to harness funds from International and Regional financial Institutions. The following countries responded positively to the Zimbabwe initiatives:
South Africa provided a facility to the tune of 575 million rands
Angola US$50 million
India US$100 million
China over US$2 billion and
Botswana P500 million which is the subject of discussion in this article.
When the economy of Zimbabwe plummeted down due to political struggles, many businesses faced a shut-down, a lot of skilled labor was lost to other countries for example United kingdom, South Africa and Botswana, to name a few. The resources in Zimbabwe were left redundant and the country was going to a waste with not much of it being useful. Upon SADC‘s decision to take-up the short term recovery program, Botswana offered Zimbabwe a P500 000 million credit line. The condition of this facility is that Zimbabwe and Botswana companies go into joint ventures to qualify to take out the loan for the intended investment in Zimbabwe. This research aimed to find out if Botswana businesses are or will benefit positively from this arrangement. The data gathered in this study shows that only a few confident business owners will utilize and benefit from the scheme.
