Zimbabwe's challenging business world

By Ian Brimacombe
BBC World Service Business

A 10 million Zimbabwe dollar note was issued this year

With inflation at several million per cent, miles of government red tape and a vanishing domestic market, running a business in Zimbabwe is not easy.

And yet, somehow, large private Zimbabwean companies are still able to function.

The chief executive of a leading steel business, who for security reasons has asked that his identity is kept secret, has been speaking to the BBC World Service about the daily business conditions he faces.

"It's not much fun," he said. "I'm surrounded by junior employees who are not paid enough money to survive adequately and who you feel can't give their best because they haven't had a decent meal the night before."

Changing prices

The company, which has several operations around the country, employs about 500 people.

On the surface, those employees might be considered lucky - at least they have jobs - but the executive told the BBC he was "depressed" he couldn't properly pay them enough to survive or feed their families.

"I think a lot of people come to work for the good, square meal we try to give them at lunch-time," he said, "but even finding the food to keep our canteen going is not easy."

The executive also told the BBC about the nightmare of trying to navigate through the unstable economic conditions.

In Zimbabwe, the price of goods changes daily, making it extremely difficult to establish the value of a product.

A company may write up an invoice for a product and send it to its buyer, but by the time the buyer receives the bill, the price has changed and everything has to be adjusted.

Loopholes

"You're constantly chasing your tail," said the executive.

He also lamented the experience of taking clients out for lunch.

"When I go on a business trip," he said, "I'll probably have to take somewhere in the order of four hundred to five hundred billion dollars."

It might sound like a lot, but with inflation estimated at three to five million percent, the money only covers a meal for two plus tip.

It all adds up to an extremely challenging business environment. But the executive said the need to survive pushes businesses into a culture where rules are there to be broken and loopholes are there to be exploited.

He acknowledges that, as a result, Zimbabwean businessmen might be described by some as "rather chancy characters."

But it's the game they have to play.

"If we ever move back into a normal time", he said, "we're going to have to be rehabilitated."

You can hear the entire interview on Thursday on The BBC World Service's "World Business Report" programme.