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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter

AWARD-winning property and construction solutions company, Profica is establishing an office in Zimbabwe making it the eighth regional office for the firm in Africa and beyond.

In a statement, the company’s senior project manager, Mr Tinashe Manyande, who is also in charge of the Zimbabwe operations, said:

“As a company with an entrepreneurial mindset, Profica looks for opportunities even in the most challenging jurisdictions.

“A key aspect in establishing our offices in Zimbabwe is to ensure that we know and understand the environment while also looking at the long-term property development potential.

“Large-scale property developments typically take between 24 and 36 months to complete. This simply means for a development and project management company, the work begins now”.

Mr Manyande has over the years been involved in building up Profica’s presence in Africa in countries that include Ghana where he was involved in setting up that company’s office in Accra.

Prior to heading off to Ghana, Mr Manyande had worked as a project manager at the Profica head office in Johannesburg.

The property development company said while Ghana’s buoyant property sector made the establishment of offices there a logical step, Zimbabwe poses a more challenging environment due to the economic challenges the country is reeling under.

Mr Manyande was quoted as saying Profica was well-established on the continent and has operated within many challenging contexts.

“Thanks to embedded teams and a solid understanding of market needs, we are equipped to grasp opportunities as soon as they present themselves and we believe the same will hold true for Zimbabwe,” he said.

The company also noted the good news is that there were remedies in place for Zimbabwe, as evidenced by a recent agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on macroeconomic policies and structural reforms that can underpin a Staff Monitored Programme (SMP). This aims to implement a coherent set of policies to facilitate a return to macroeconomic stability, a critical ingredient for a robust and functioning property sector.

Despite Zimbabwe’s current constrained environment, Mr Manyande sees enormous potential in the future underpinned by stable economic fundamentals and driven by the fact that the country’s retail, commercial and industrial property sectors have been largely dormant over the last 20 or more years.

“Profica believes in the future of Zimbabwe and its people. Undoubtedly there’s a lot of work to do in Zimbabwe and as a leading development and project management firm we have never shied away from hard work – it’s what we do.

“We want to be leading the way in the delivery of exceptional world class projects for our various clients,” he said.

Profica was established in 2005 and has regional offices in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Mauritius, Zambia, Nigeria, the UAE, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe, enabling strong service capability throughout Africa with permanent teams across the continent to ensure localised solutions. The company manages property development projects across many industry sectors, including retail, office, industrial, hospitality, healthcare, residential and mixed use.

Over the years, Profica has been recognised with numerous awards including receiving the prestigious Diamond Arrow award for the fifth time as the highest rated Project Manager in the PMR Africa Excellence Awards 2018.

-@okazunga