Daydreaming about courting Japan’s energy giants won’t end Zimbabwe’s power crisis

📅 Published: August 26, 2025

📰 Source: thezimbabwean

Curated by AllZimNews.com

On the surface, the prospect of Japanese companies, with their technological sophistication and financial muscle, entering our energy sector looks promising.

Yet when the layers of political rhetoric are peeled back, one cannot help but question whether such overtures will translate into tangible investment.

Courting private players into our energy sector is one thing; persuading them to actually commit their capital is quite another.

The fundamental question the government ought to ask itself is whether Zimbabwe’s economic environment is viable for private players in the energy sector.

Energy projects are not the type of ventures that can be sustained on mere promises or political charm offensives.

These are undertakings that require billions of dollars in upfront capital and yield returns only over the long term.

For serious investors, decisions to enter such a market depend not on sentiment but on a combination of economic fundamentals, regulatory clarity, and political credibility.

Sadly, Zimbabwe’s current environment fails dismally on all these fronts.

The first and most obvious stumbling block is economic instability.

Investors thrive in predictability.

Yet Zimbabwe’s economy has been defined by volatility—high inflation, a local currency that collapses at will, and policies that shift with political winds.

For a Japanese energy giant, the simple question would be: how do you forecast future earnings in a country where the value of your revenues could evaporate overnight due to exchange rate shocks or arbitrary monetary policy?