On January 17, 2025, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, announced the launch of the National Venture Capital Company of Zimbabwe (NVCCZ). This initiative aims to support startups and early-stage businesses by providing patient capital, mentorship, and strategic guidance, thereby addressing funding gaps and promoting innovation across various sectors.
The NVCCZ has already partnered with ventures such as Kumba Care, a telemedicine platform; a tomato processing plant in collaboration with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST); and Equity Echoes, a platform promoting transparency in venture funding.
If you ask any entrepreneur the challenges they face, they will tell you that funding is probably the biggest. The coffers are bone dry for aspiring businesspeople with the mainstream financial institutions not interested and the others charging loan shark interests.
That all means we should all be excited about the launch of the NVCCZ. It has the potential to fill critical gaps in funding for startups and early-stage businesses.
Initiatives like this are especially important in Zimbabwe, where traditional lending mechanisms often exclude budding entrepreneurs and where economic challenges hinder private-sector investment.
However, my excitement-o-meter barely registers any movement. They do say ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ and we are more than twice shy after being bitten by this government thousands of times.
Track Record of Similar Initiatives
Zimbabwe’s history with similar government-backed projects raises questions about the NVCCZ’s implementation. Past programs designed to stimulate growth and development, such as agricultural mechanization programs, youth empowerment funds, and parastatal-led economic projects, have often revealed:
- Lack of Transparency: Many programs failed to disclose how funds were allocated or managed, leading to widespread corruption allegations.
- Inefficiency: Projects were often poorly executed, with funds misappropriated or resources wasted.
- Limited Accessibility: Funds and resources frequently failed to reach the grassroots level, with benefits concentrated among politically connected individuals or entities.
- Weak Accountability Mechanisms: Many initiatives collapsed without clear audits or lessons learned, leaving us, the taxpayers, to shoulder the financial burden. With Mthuli taxing us extra even when we eat chicken, we are right to wonder if these tax dollars will be misused.
Mthuli knew we would question the initiative and he got in front of the limited accessibility criticism. Said he,
We understand the importance of trust and fairness in ensuring the success of this initiative. This is about empowering all Zimbabweans, not just a privileged few
Mthuli’s words vs Govt track record
To be frank, his words mean nothing because he would say that regardless of whether or not it was true. He couldn’t possibly say, ‘Yeah, the NVCCZ is yet another initiative to reward our loyal party followers with the loot we are amassing.’ So, yeah, only time will tell if only a privileged few will benefit, with a few random ones thrown in to avoid criticism.
Again, the government’s track record is a better signal than what Mthuli is saying and the track record says don’t put any trust into this.
Answers to questions like ‘What structures are in place to ensure funds are not misused?’ and ‘Will there be independent audits and public reporting of progress?’ will determine to what extent we can expect this one to be different.
What we need, but probably won’t get
To avoid repeating past mistakes, the NVCCZ must publish clear criteria for funding, maintain an online portal for applications and updates, and conduct regular audits by independent firms.
They should also actively promote opportunities in rural areas and offer training programs to ensure entrepreneurs can access funding and mentorship.
The government should establish accountability measures. It should implement performance metrics for funded projects and require periodic reporting from beneficiaries. There are too many initiatives which came and went and yet the public has no idea who got what and did what with it. That has to change.
The government is not really good at stuff like this. So, they should foster partnerships. It wouldn’t hurt to collaborate with private investors, NGOs, and international organizations to build trust and diversify funding sources.
The success of the NVCCZ will depend on its ability to identify and support promising startups. This requires a deep understanding of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and the ability to assess investment risks effectively. Be honest, do you think the government knows how to do this effectively?
We need to know why past initiatives failed. If we don’t know, we will likely repeat those mistakes. So the government needs to study why past initiatives failed and design systems to address those shortcomings.
Only when we see the government take some of these measures will we get excited about initiatives like the NVCCZ.
