NewsDay (Zimbabwe)

Foreign capital will never build Zimbabwe

- Terence Mukupe

LOVE it or hate it, the success of the Command Agricultur­e programme should force local banks to revise the long-held view of tying loans to collateral.

If they identify bona fide indigenous people with projects that have good cashflow, there is absolutely no need to ask for collateral.

If banks fix that warped mindset, there would be less hustlers on the streets engaging in illegal deals.

So for me, all those guys selling bronco, grocery smugglers and makorokoza, are doing so because our banking system is designed for those fortunate enough to have been born as “trust fund” babies with title deeds to properties.

So it is downright stupid to expect the populace to escape poverty as long as we have a banking system that was designed for a privileged few.

Ask yourself why is it that the only time in our history we had black business tycoons birthed in this country was when we had the following financial institutio­ns in place Trust, Century, Intermarke­t and Kingdom, among others. The honest truth is that white foreign capital will never develop Zimbabwe.

In short, we, as Zanu PF, need to bring back home-grown banks and not these government backed banks.

Let us allow our celebrated home-grown bankers to come back into the space and properly support government programmes.

I really miss my grand uncle the late Finance minister Bernard Chidzero because he understood this simple need.

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