–As Dorowa is set for May restart.

Harare – Mutapa Investment Fund has committed $153 million to resuscitate Zimbabwe’s fertiliser manufacturing value chain, with the first disbursements already enabling Dorowa Minerals to resume phosphate production in May, fund chief executive Dr John Mangudya told parliament.

Presenting before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce, Dr Mangudya said $5.3 million had been disbursed to Dorowa for plant refurbishment, targeting production of 100,000 metric tonnes of phosphate concentrate – enough to produce 300,000 metric tonnes of basal fertilisers – starting next month.

“After the assessment that we did, we then said how do we start ensuring that those companies go back to basics,” Mangudya said. “We have put in place funding for the manufacturing and value chain starting with Dorowa, where the phosphates come from – the concentrate required to produce fertilisers and also to produce sulphuric acid.”

The fund has also disbursed $3 million to ZFC as a working capital facility to support fertiliser production through ARDA programmes, and $13.3 million to Sable Chemicals. The Sable Chemicals investment will see government increase its shareholding from 37 percent to 69 percent, with Mutapa becoming the majority shareholder.

“We need a product like ammonium nitrate, which can be used as an input to produce more products,” Mangudya said.

A further $10 million has been earmarked for Dorowa’s phase two, pending release, to boost phosphate output for the country’s target of 450,000 metric tonnes of basal fertilisers. In total, the fund has allocated $103.1 million to resuscitate, rehabilitate and improve fertiliser production in Zimbabwe.

Acknowledging that local production will take time to meet demand, Mangudya said the fund is putting in place a $75 million interim import facility through ZFC, ZimPhos and Sable Chemicals to bridge supply gaps.

“It takes plenty of time to put in place equipment, to order spares, to raise capital. In the interim, we need to produce agricultural commodities,” he said. “It’s a two-pronged approach: while we are putting in place funding for production, we are putting in place funding to fill the gaps.”

The fund has also earmarked $20 million for sulphuric acid production at ZimPhos and is requiring all chief executives and board chairpersons of its entities to adhere to governance frameworks, segregation of duties, and key performance indicators on production and procurement.

“We have done a lot in the one-and-a-half years the fund has been in existence,” Mangudya said. “The trajectory where we are going and where we are coming from is day and night in comparison. We should never dwell in the past, because the past is what we know.”

The MIF is Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund, established to manage and grow the country’s commercial assets.

The fund was originally established in 2014 by an Act of Parliament as the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe. It was rebranded and operationalised as the Mutapa Investment Fund in September 2023.

The fund is led by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. John Mangudya, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Its primary mandate is to provide strategic leadership and oversight to its portfolio companies to drive economic growth, create jobs, and generate long-term wealth for the nation. The government has tasked MIF with implementing critical reforms to improve the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The MIF manages a significant portfolio of over 30 state-owned enterprises across key sectors including mining, energy, transport, telecommunications, agriculture, banking, and real estate. As of December 2024, the fund had a gross asset value of approximately US$16 billion and a fair value of US$15 billion.