Top Financial Advisor Bashes Investment Conferences

In an exclusive interview in Harare at a recent investment conference, Gammon said: “We must do some work instead of coming to talk shops,” he said.

“I have not gone to some investment conferences such as India with the Vice President (Joice Mujuru) simply because firstly I was not invited but mostly because they have become talk shops.”

He said for the country to move forward it should tighten its budgeting system and also repay outstanding loans to major international creditors including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

The Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti has already confirmed that Zimbabwe is US$8 billion in the red and is struggling to repay the creditors.

“There is no cash in Zimbabwe,” Gammon said.

“The tight budgeting needs to be adhered to strictly. There are major contradictions with indigenisation and the use of multi-currencies in Zimbabwe right now which makes business expensive.

Zimbabwe is using the South African Rand, the United States dollar as well as the Botswana Pula and the British Pound Sterling after having dumped it worthless Zimbabwe Bearer Cheques in 2009.

That currency had led to hyperinflation of more than 231 million percent under Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr Gideon Gono.

“We must also try to attract international investors and not locals as is the case in many cases right now,” gammon said.

“It is the international investors that we want in Zimbabwe and whom we are targeting at the moment.

“We also need to develop our own strategies and not really worry about what the West is doing such as the suggested Quantitative Systems which are being used.”

Imara Africa Securities Limited is among Zimbabwe’s top investment firms which tries to woo investment to the cash-strapped nation.