Business Briefs

ZESA Holdings, Zimbabwe’s electricity utility, has repaid most of its debt to two Mozambican power firms, Salvador Namburete, the Mozambican energy minister, said last week.

Namburete said the power utility had cleared $18million (R121million) of the $20 million it owed to Hidroelectrica de Mocambique, and $10 million of the $11 million owed to Electrica de Mocambique.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing a lot of power cuts due to failure by the power utility to pay for electricity.

CFI beats inflation

CFI Holdings Limited released a fair set of results for the full year ended 30 September 2007, which saw top line growth ahead of inflation.

The group generated Z$265,1 billion cash from operating activities while total assets grew to$12,1 trillion, a 25650% increase largely due to biological assets revaluations.  

Revenue before factoring in fair value adjustments which were 23% of aggregate at $691b was up 13411% to $2,3 trillion from $18 billion.

The operating profit rose 18 720% to $1,24 trillion from $6,6 billion and the company had a fair value gain from listed investments of $799 billion and incurred interest costs of $51 billion.

Profit before tax was $1,99 trillion from $6,7 billion resulting in an attributable profit of $1,61 trillion , a growth of 33 872%.

Basic EPS rose 32 523% to $3 118,24 from $9,56. No final dividend was declared in order to preserve cash.  

Sunrise II imminent – Gono

RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono, last week said the launch of Sunrise II was imminent, sounding a warning bell to individuals, companies and financial institutions stashing cash for speculative and illegal market purposes.

Addressing a media briefing Gono said the imminent launch of phase two was necessitated by rising underground illegal market and speculative tendencies factors responsible for the prevailing cash shortages in the economy.

“The launch of the second of the currency change-over follows the rise in the illegal market dealings and speculation tendencies resulting in the artificial shortages of the local currency in the economy,” said Gono.

He showed those present at the meeting samples of the new currency and said the operation would draw lessons learnt from the first phase – with tighter surveillance and monitoring measures to ensure the smooth and decisive implementation process.

Without revealing the exact date, Gono said the second phase, to be implemented within a 24-hour period, would see the bank rolling out a new currency, and implement a special facility targeting the rural areas.  

 

CCZ worried about health risks

THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says SMES involved in food are essential to the economic and social development of the consumer but some of them pose health risks due to poor handling, storage practices, inadequate facilities and poorly trained staff.  

Deputy Director Rosemary Chikarakara said food vendors lacked the technical skills needed to monitor risks required to implement food safety and quality management systems, hence the need for all food stakeholders to come up and map a way forward for the vendors.

Consumer International Member Services Manager Cathy Rutivi said Zimbabwe could learn a lot from other African and Asian countries where vendors have been trained on how to handle and store food.  

Food SMES are increasingly becoming a key food source especially for the urban consumers. In light of the environment, improving food safety practices within the sector is vital to protecting basic consumer rights to access safe and healthy food.  

There are no specific regulations to street vended food in the country but is done under the provision of specific city by-laws. The stakeholders in the food sector feel that food laws are too fragmented, making the process of assuring safety difficulty.  

The three-day workshop aims to communicate and share up to date information on food safety and promote good working relationship among food stakeholders and is being attended by officials from several government departments, food and nutrition council, consumer representative and members of the street vendors association.