The Mutapa Investment Fund has received a 2023 dividend of ZiG31 million (US$2.2m) from the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC), one of over 20 state companies that the sovereign wealth fund now runs.
The dividend adds to the US$1 million dividend that NOIC declared for 2022. The company runs fuel infrastructure, including the Feruka pipeline and storage facilities.
“The dividend is a commendable thing,” says Simba Chinyemba, chief investment officer at Mutapa. “There are also various projects that NOIC is doing, chief of which is increasing the capacity of the oil pipeline capacity”.
That project will see the pipeline from Feruka adding capacity from 2 billion litres per year to 3 billion litres by September, according to NOIC CEO Wilfred Matukeni. A second phase which will increase capacity to 5 billion litres.
NOIC makes its money by charging importers for using the pipeline and its storage facilities. Last year, NOIC commissioned ethanol storage tanks of three million litres each, doubling capacity at its Ruwa facility. NOIC is also building 2 000-metric-tonne LPG storage facilities.
In 2021, government announced plans to build a second US$1.3 billion oil pipeline to supply fuel into the country and the region. The project would be under a 50-50 joint venture between NOIC and Coven Energy, a company registered in South Africa and the UK. Its directors, under an interest known as Mine Oil and Gas Services (MOGS), are backed by the Royal Bafokeng investment group of South Africa and represented in Zimbabwe by Eddie Cross.
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