The Herald
Ishemunyoro Chingwere Business Reporter
The Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) and Ministry of Health and Child Care have crafted a framework for cooperation to reduce hurdles to invest in the cannabis industry.
Under the framework, ZIDA and the ministry will issue a joint licence for production of cannabis, envisaged to be a billion-dollar industry, through ZIDA’s One-Stop Investment Service Centre (OSISC).
This is part of efforts to encourage and speed up investment in a sector which the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development envisages will earn the country up to US$1,25 billion in exports next year.
Cannabis production was legalised in Zimbabwe through Statutory Instrument 62 of 2018 (Dangerous Drugs — Production of Cannabis for Medicinal and Scientific Use Regulations) with production solely meant for medicinal purposes.
The crop is used by pharmaceuticals the world over in the manufacture of drugs and provides Zimbabwe with a potentially huge foreign currency earning export product at a time the Government is targeting to boost and widen the country’s export basket.
In a statement released yesterday — the country’s premier investment agency, ZIDA, advised of the “ease of doing business” measures devised for the sector in line with President Mnangagwa’s drive to promote investment in order to grow the economy to upper…
