I have gone through a re-branding process. Whilst Caird is technically a group of companies the name "Caird Group" was becoming a little wordy. So we are now operating simply as "Caird."
Dianna Games' column in this morning's Business Day discusses Mugabe's "Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill", which is waiting for Mugabe's signature before it becomes law. What I found most interesting in this article was that this is not the first time this kind of principle has been implemented in Africa. The Nigerians, under the military government of Murtala Muhammed, introduced an Indigenisation Decree in the mid-70s.
The decree listed three categories of ownership
- 60% foreign ownership was allowed in businesses with a high technology and skills component, notably the oil industry;
- 51% local ownership was ordered for a mid-tier of business, including banking and construction
- 100% ownership was decreed in smaller businesses such as retail.
Many multinationals, notably international banks such as Standard Chartered, Citibank and Barclays, pulled out.
The sentiment in Zimbabwe seems to be similar, not so much an economic re-alignment, but a feudal system of retaining vassals' loyalty. Some go far as to call it "cronyism".
I suppose we should watch our own ownership regulations closely. The 25.1% is designed to ensure a veto right over critical decisions regarding the business. If the ownership requirements start increasing without any logical reason we should look at Zimbabwe's meltdown and wonder where we might be headed.
Games sums up the concept of economic empowerment perfectly in her concluding paragraph.
A priority for most Zimbabweans right now is simply having a job. All the rest is “just grammar”, as Nigerians would say.
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