TIME Bank of Zimbabwe Limited will use its asset base to raise US$1 million that can be invested or reinvested back into the economy to grow to US$1 billion over a 20-year timeframe, it has been revealed.
The strategy was revealed in the bank’s ambitious proposal of arranging syndicate loans of US$35 billion to the government as part of a strategy to compensate 10 groups of people owed significant amounts of money.
The compensations listed by the bank are for land repossessed before and after independence as well as for the loss of value that occurred to different economic segments following the 2008/09 hyperinflationary period.
The bank reopened in 2022, 18 years after it had been unjustly closed by the central bank.
“If investments are also invested wisely in certain key areas of the Zimbabwean economy, the GDP [gross domestic product] of the country can also grow to at least US$200 billion within 20 years, directly and indirectly through the economic multiplier effect,” Time Bank managing director Christopher Takura Wesley Tande said in the bank’s financial statement for the period year ended December 31, 2023.
“It will be a wonderful thing, indeed, to see a US$200 billion Zimbabwean economy within 20 years, initiated and driven primarily by confident Zimbabwean investors with the support of equally confident international investors in some areas.”
He said US$1 million could initiate such a big change provided the business environment was conducive for such an investment programme.
“Our audited financial statements for the year under review confirm that Time Bank has an asset base which can be used to raise US$1 million for purposes of launching the above-mentioned investment programme,” Tande said.
He said Time Bank had a strategy which covered the period from 2022 to 2025 and that such strategy centred on building a scalable business which starts small, but which can be easily scaled up.
“If an amount of US$1 million is raised from local sources and invested or reinvested, lawfully and transparently, by a group of confident investors, preferably of diverse backgrounds, including diverse skills, with an innovative strategy, under a conducive business environment, it can grow to US$ 1 billion, within 20 years . . . through direct and indirect investments in the real economy or through financial instruments that are strongly linked to investments in the real economy” Tande said.
“The progressive achievement of the first group can encourage 35 or more groups to do the same with US$1 million each and together, the 35 groups will achieve total investments of US$35 billion.”
He said the groups could also form lawful syndicates of investors which can make syndicate investments to achieve impact investments in certain economic areas.