Over the last decade hundreds of thousands of highly trained and experienced Zimbabweans left the country for political, economic and social reasons seeking opportunities and safety elsewhere. There have been recent calls for voluntary return of these professionals to help re-build the Zimbabwean Economy. The calls however lack detail and proper planning in terms of how those returning professionals would be absorbed into the economy and into their professional bodies which represent professionals.
The representative professional bodies such as those for accountants, doctors, teachers and nurses have been very silent and absent in developing a credible plan and incentive scheme to re-attract fellow professionals who left Zimbabwe. There is a need for the various professional bodies to step up their approach and be pro-active in assisting the NRZ who may be seeking opportunities in Zimbabwe.
Various professional bodies who represent engineers, teachers, nurses, bankers and other professionals should be at the forefront to inform ,educate and attracting NRZ back to Zimbabwe. This is a natural role for such bodies as they will benefit from larger membership in addition to attracting members who now have international exposure and in many instances have enhanced their qualifications.
For some of these regulated professions such as Law, Medicine and Banking there is need to have information easily and readily available on how one can be registered or re-registered and re-start in Zimbabwe. This information is lacking yet NRZ are expected to flock back in Zimbabwe, this expectation is misplaced and has to be re-adjusted with a view to the reality shown by the lack of focus and initiative by the various representative bodies in being helpful to the NRZ who maybe considering returning or investing in Zimbabwe.
Whilst most people left Zimbabwe in possibly un co-ordinated manner the return can not be the same. Many in the NRZ community have settled wherever they are. This means most would require proper incentives on why one must return to where they once fled, escaped or just left from. This requires that those on the grounds especially the specialized professional bodies representing various professions must put their act together and prepare accurate and detailed on market conditions, trends, salary levels and general conditions of service should one decide to voluntary return to Zimbabwe. This should include any registrations that one may need to practice in their field or any skill upgrade that maybe required to be allowed to practice.
The re-building of the Zimbabwe Economy will require the reversal of the brain drain scourge witnessed over the last decade through various ways. The first and most effective way is to make the qualified NRZ feel welcome and appreciated in terms of what they can bring to the table. It is obviously clear that over the last few years the educational standards have been falling making it much harder for most Zimbabwe Universities to match the previous years standards. This situation can be addressed by re-attracting the NRZ who amongst them have gained new capital, networks, skills and qualifications. The returning NRZ will inject significant capital in the Zimbabwean economy in various forms including skills and financial capital. For this to be done effectively for the maximum benefit information must be freely available accompanied by a credible absorption plan of the NRZ into the current workforce and general economy.
This article appears as courtesy of GMRI Capital ( http://www.gmricapital.com ) prepared for 3MG MEDIA
Gilbert Muponda is a Founder and CEO of GMRI Capital ( http://www.gmricapital.com ). He can be reached at;
Email: gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com . Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda
Twitter ; http://twitter.com/gmricapital
Facebook ; http://www.facebook.com/muponda
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