Sub-Saharan Africa infrastructure development expert and business mogul-Dr Tinashe Manzungu has been elected as a Board Director of Common Market for East and South Africa (COMESA) Business Council (CBC).
In his position representing southern Africa, Manzungu will be chairing the Finance Risk and Audit Committee of the COMESA 21 member states. .
The developments were established as the CBC reshuffled its position during its annual general meeting which was held on the 30th of April in Zambia.
In a statement Manzungu said, “In this regards, the new president of CBC is now Mr James Mwanza coming from Malawi. From Zimbabwe I was elected to chair the Finance Risk and Audit committee. I will be representing the SADC region and the board has nine member States,” said Manzungu.
“So this means 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.”
During the side lines of the CBC’s 11th Board Meeting which was held on the 29th of April in Zambia where they discussed issues pertaining to the socio economic development of the COMESA, Manzungu said, he is committed to make a substantial contribution to his new role.
“It is such an honour for me to be trusted with such a significant role that makes a huge contribution in the socio economic development of the COMESA member states. I am committed to deliver the best of my ability as COMESA moves towards an inclusive digital system that promotes intra Africa trade,” he said.
Manzungu added, “Part of the discussions were on the liberalization 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. The discussions were centred on critical aspects that will shape the platform’s functionality, including forex providers, settlement models, technical specifications, and governance frameworks.”
CBC is implementing a Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) 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 (MSMEs), for the COMESA region.
The program has a keen focus on women and youth.
This will evolve from a regulatory focus approach to the business model, to actual operational and technical establishment, with clearly defined components.
“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,” he said.
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