Former central bank chief to head up Zimbabwe SWF

A former two-term governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will head a 10-member board governing the country's new sovereign wealth fund (SWF), according to reports from Zimbabwean media which claim the appointment was announced by the finance minister on June 19.

Kombo Moyana was the first black governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, a post he held from 1983 to 1993. In 2010, he returned to the RBZ as a member of its board, though he is not currently listed as a member on the RBZ website.

Moyana will lead the board of the SWF, which is being set up to invest a portion of the Zimbabwe treasury's income from natural resource extraction – diamonds in particular. The SWF act, signed into law by President Robert Mugabe in November last year, says that up to 25% of government royalties from mining activities can be handed over to the SWF.

The exact mandate of the fund, or how large it is likely to be, is still somewhat undefined – but it is a key plank of the government's strategic plan to develop the economy, known as the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, or Zim Asset, which runs to 2018.

According to the Zim Asset mission statement, "the creation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund will be given priority under this Plan to backstop and provide predictability and sustainability to Government innovative funding."

The RBZ will be the primary custodian of the fund, according to local press reports on the SWF act, which has not been published online.

Also on the SWF board is Nicholas Ncube, deputy governor of the RBZ until 2012. Moyana will chair the board, with Vimbayi Nyemba, the first female president of the country's law society, as deputy. Other board members include businessman Nicholas Vingirayi and Sithembile Pilime, chief executive of trade body Zimtrade.