Local businessman Tinashe Manzungu has been elected as board director of the Common Market for East and South Africa (Comesa)’s Business Council (CBC) Finance Risk and Audit committee and the chairperson of finance committee.
A businessman with interest in real estate, construction and health insurance, Manzungu has carved a niche for himself regionally and internationally, earning various accolades and appointments.
He is a major shareholder and board chair in private limited companies that include Zimbuild and Clientsure Group while he sits on various boards including the Zimbabwe Republic Police Staff College and Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association where he is the vice-president.
Manzungu, who is also a former council member of the Midlands State University, said the CBC had its 11th board meeting on April 29 in Zambia where they deliberated issues around the socio economic development of Comesa member states.
“Part of the discussions were on the liberalisation of trade in Comesa through involvement of an inclusive digital system that aims at promoting inter Africa trade through a digital payment platform that we are launching in November,” he said.
“The discussions were centred on critical aspects that will shape the platform’s functionality, including forex providers, settlement models, technical specifications, and governance frameworks.”
Manzungu said on April 30, the CBC held its annual general meeting where new executive positions were announced.
“In that vein, the new president of CBC is now Mr James Mwanza from Malawi and from Zimbabwe I was elected to chair the Finance Risk and Audit committee where I will be representing the Sadc region and the board has nine member states,” he said.
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Manzungu said the first vice-president and second vice-presidents would be coming from Kenya and Egypt respectively.
“So what it means is that I will be managing all the finances coming in for our activities to make sure they are managed according to expenditure and programmes so that all our member states benefit equally,” he said.
The CBC remains committed to driving industrialisation and small to medium enterprises development in the Comesa ESA region and beyond.
“By fostering collaboration and sharing best practices, CBC aims to contribute to Africa’s economic transformation and sustainable development,” Manzungu said.
CBC is implementing a digital financial inclusion programme that supports the design, development and deployment of an integrated regional digital retail payment scheme that is low-cost, interoperable and fraud resistant that serves micro small and medium-sized enterprises for the Comesa region.
The programme has a focus on women and youth.
“We have the DFI programme which we are putting into action and all that we are doing is putting transparency through compliance so that our funders and donors through the Comesa Treaty know that everything is being done under transparency,” Manzungu said.
