Story by Stanley James, Business Editor
ZIMBABWEANS in the diaspora continue to significantly contribute to the nation’s economic growth, having sent home over US$1.5 billion in remittances during the first eight months of this year.
This marks an increase from the US$1.3 billion recorded over the same period last year, reflecting a rise of US$200 million, translating to a 15% increase.
The development means that remittances are now accounting for a huge portion of foreign currency inflows for Zimbabwe after exports.
Highlighting the importance of remittances to the economy, monetary authorities continue to treat them as free funds.
CBZ Holdings Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Lawrence Nyazema, spoke on the benefits of remittances to the economy and how current policies have contributed to the growth in the inflows.
“We are grateful to our people on the diaspora so if you look at the numbers it’s massive in terms of overall forex receipts, if we go ten years ago remittances were less than US$1 billion, but with the current situation it gives a lot of impetus to the overall growth in forex receivables and we thank our brothers and sisters abroad.
“A lot of the remittances go to our social services like education and the health sectors, which puts less burden on the Government’s resources we have also seen that a lot of investments have also gone into the construction sectors of the economy, my appeal to those in the diaspora is to look beyond the current levels of investment and take a leading role in the infrastructure programmes for additional funding for several projects,” he said.
Monetary Policy Committee member, Mr Persistence Gwanyanya, explained the importance of the diaspora on economic development.
“The remittances are key to overall growth, and we expect a lot to be derived riding on the current gains, so indeed the current developments point to a situation whereby the nation stands to benefit a lot in terms of generating funds to sustain growth,” he said.
Diaspora remittances are key to national economic development and are helping the country build its foreign currency reserves for the functioning of the economy.
