Source: ZimLive
Secret 16-month push delivers Dangote as potential ‘game-changer’ for Zimbabwe.
Dangote team arrives in Zimbabwe, kicking off project implementation.
Bard Santner CEO Senziwani Sikhosana.
HARARE – Bard Santner CEO Senziwani Sikhosana says the return of Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote to pursue a potential US$1 billion investment could mark a decisive economic turning point for Zimbabwe, capping what he described as a 16-month private campaign to lure the industrialist back following his abandoned 2015 plans.
Speaking at the Bard Santner Golf Day on Saturday, Sikhosana said the agreement between the government and Dangote Group showed that “Zimbabwe is ready to rise,” calling it “a turning point” and “a signal that global capital is beginning to listen again.”.
He said his firm, a prominent financial intermediary, was honoured to have advised on what he described as a historic process.
“This moment is not just a transaction. It is a turning point,” he told bankers and industrialists.
Dangote visited Zimbabwe last week and announced interest in cement manufacturing, coal mining, power generation and a fuel pipeline expected to link Walvis Bay in Namibia to Bulawayo.
His renewed engagement follows years of frustration after his 2015 plans to build a cement plant collapsed in what journalist and business adviser Josie Mahachi described as a “toxic business environment.”.
“Honestly, I don’t want to lie. I had really closed the Zimbabwe chapter between Aliko Dangote and my country Zimbabwe,” Mahachi said, recalling how the earlier excitement “fell into unexplained obscurity.”.
Mahachi, who worked with Sikhosana to revive the talks, said convincing Dangote to reconsider Zimbabwe was not easy.
“Fast forward, here we are. We said to Aliko, ‘let’s try again’,” she recalled.
Her renewed outreach, combined with visits to a Dangote Group plant in Nigeria, eventually set the stage for last week’s visit, during which the billionaire met President Emmerson Mnangagwa and signed an investment agreement.
During the visit, Dangote said he was encouraged by what he sees as improvements in the investment climate under Mnangagwa’s administration.
Sikhosana said negotiations began in June 2024 and were conducted “under absolute discretion.”.
