The Bricks Zimbabwe Must Line Up to Build Dreams

Monica Cheru-Managing Editor

Shenzhen, China- Build Your Dreams—an apt name for a tech giant that has brought evolution into motoring.

BYD’s global headquarters in Shenzhen is a testament that the world does not belong to those who just dream but to those who roll up their sleeves and make their dreams come true.

The lobby is a showroom with the whole operational system of some models of BYD’s electric vehicles on full display. The visual feast is a strong selling point for potential clients who can see exactly what they are getting.

Going into the brand presentation space, the miniature working model of the factory, some certificates of the over 30,000 global patents, and all other tech are overwhelming.

A dot on the map

But for me, the most important moment was looking at the giant map of BYD’s global footprint and seeing Zimbabwe as one of the few spots in Africa.

But Zimbabwe is a market point for BYD products, a good number of which contain the lithium we mine and export after basic processing.

With Zimbabwe sitting on 11 million tons of untapped lithium—a resource critical to BYD’s 150,000-ton annual battery production—this dot could become a nexus of opportunity.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's talk of building our country brick by brick resonates with all Zimbabweans in principle, but the implementation is up for a lot of questions.

Touring the BYD HQ and seeing that dot representing Zimbabwe, it becomes clear that as a nation, we have not molded the bricks to build our dreams.

BYD’s SkyShuttle—an elevated, driverless electric rail system gliding silently on slim concrete beams—is the answer to our urban commuter mass transit challenges.

According to a source at BYD, the 9-meter-high concrete platform costs around 60% less than a subway, and the Brazilian one in operation was built within two years. Today, Salvador, BYD’s SkyRail, moves over 150,000 commuters daily and has created over 2,000 jobs.

In the UK, BYD’s partnership with Alexander Dennis has led to thousands of locally assembled electric buses on the streets of London and Glasgow.

Imagining the same thing happening in Zimbabwe when our lithium reserves evolve into a BYD super factory in the country serving the continental market is not an unrealistic dream.

But for Zimbabwe to build the dream, we need to make the bricks. We must create five critical “bricks” in our investment path:

1. Policy Certainty

The National Competitiveness Commission, local business platforms including the Zimbabwe Chamber of Commerce, and organizations representing foreign enterprises in the country have repeatedly spoken on the need for policy consistency to create a stable investor climate.

Zimbabwe’s policy on new energy development has been so erratic that it would be difficult for any enterprise to plan a long-term investment in the country. The 2023 export ban on raw lithium, though strategic, was too sudden and poorly planned. The promised Mutorashanga lithium beneficiation mega park remains a dream. If Zimbabwe’s government really wants corporations of BYD’s stature to invest in beneficiation like battery plants and value-adding production, it must not use coercion and threats but instead create an environment such businesses find attractive. And that begins with long-term clarity, not poorly thought-out directives.

2. Governance Reform

Brazil and the UK’s success with BYD is built on transparency and partnerships with credible municipal authorities. But with Zimbabwe ranked 140th out of 180 in the Corruption Perceptions Index and the high stench that seems to have become standard with all public ventures, we will not see any progress.

National interests and transparency must be improved. We cannot expect a Fortune 500-listed company like BYD to risk its global reputation over murky deals. We have to make a new culture brick of accountability where public officials face proper prosecution and punishment.

The current system, where high-profile cases are just a cost to the taxpayer that brings no results, is making the country a highly unattractive investment destination.

3. Currency Stability

Zimbabwe’s much-globalized currency debacles and the resultant government policies on forex retention and payment backlogs are the stuff that investor nightmares are made of. The brick of a stable currency can only be built with financial prudence, engendering public trust in the central bank.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mushayavanhu cannot explain why the Zimbabwe dollar is losing value when the gold it is supposed to be pegged to is appreciating. Or even why their much-vaunted gold reserves and currency reserves are failing to create confidence in the currency.

Obviously, it is because they themselves do not want the currency and prefer the US dollar. Until we can easily get passports and buy fuel with the local currency, we all know that it is just paper pretending to be money.

4. Power Infrastructure

Any industry needs stable electricity supplies. The current production levels are a joke if we really want to see Zimbabwe thrive. We cannot talk of seeing BYD establish local lithium processing and EV systems with what we have.

We must think in terms of proper infrastructure like Shenzhen’s robust grid, fed by a mix of solar, wind, and thermal production.

The energy production brick can only be molded by willpower to address the foregoing challenges and urgently invest in grid upgrades and green energy.

5. Local Capability

The UK model shows how BYD thrives on local assembly and talent integration. Zimbabwe has a high literacy level but is low on a digitally skilled labor force.

Education 5.0 is a great initiative, and we are witnessing some practical results from the various tertiary institutions like Harare Institute of Technology; students are now prototyping solar-powered tractors.

But there is a need to do more. Government must dedicate a set percentage of the national budget to research and development because if we leave it to others to find the potential in our natural resources, we will always be limited beneficiaries of the technological advances.

We must move beyond seeking skills transfer and start creating new capabilities that we can share with the world.

Let’s make the bricks

If Zimbabwe wants to leap into the green future—not just as a resource supplier, but as a partner in innovation—it must mold the bricks that build dreams. The Transitional Stabilisation Programme and National Development Strategy 1 have shown that Zimbabwe can fly high. NDS2 must be reoriented to fix the fundamental problems.