In my view every company should have an economist in the boardroom. Someone who is able to assist in decision making looking at past economic trends and projecting the future. But is this possible? Budget constraints do come into play and few are able to engage a full time economist.

Only financial institutions have the luxury of employing them and for good reasons, most engage actuarial scientists. Do we find economists in the retail sector, mining sector, agriculture sectors?

Highly unlikely and in a few instances—they engage management firms on a consultancy basis especially during strategic planning and review sessions.

Therefore the role of economists is assumed by accountants. But do accountants have the depth required in a fast changing economic landscape?

How many accountants can unpack the De-dollarization Roadmap? How many can confidently say this is what is likely to happen creating a scenario analysis for decision making?

How many accountants are able to unpack the history of currencies in Zimbabwe and implications on business performance? For instance to say The Bond lasted for so many months—these were the implications, lessons learnt carried over to the ZIG and the likely scenario is this or that?

Truth is, accountants have a lot on their plate. Financial reporting, audits and compliance do take a lot of time leaving little space for analysis. Yes top companies do factor this and have well developed systems. But how about non listed firms, medium sized businesses and small ones?

How many accountants can predict the next Statutory Instrument and likely impact?

Who can confidently advise on economic impact during the run up to elections? Who has time to be following all draft bills tabled in parliament? Who has the luxury of economic indicators trekking, reading the mood and advise management?

What will management say when they see a senior employee sitting in office and browsing through newspapers and listening to business conversations? They will say—this position doesn’t add value!

Do accountants possess enough depth on economic matters?

· At college (Bacc|Bcom)—Economics briefly covered, micro and macro economics.

· At MBA—Economics also covered but still the depth not good enough.

· At Professional Level—Basically a repeat of Honours Degree level. It is worse for foreign qualifications which do not consider the local complexities. Yes they will master micro-economics basis, macro economics too. But will have scant application skills on local economies.

It is only experience that they will add depth to their skills. Solid Continuous Professional Development (CPDs) will help plug the gaps.

As you review your performance results particularly adverse variences, one of the questions you may need to ask yourselves is—What percentage could be attributed to lack of economics depth?

The recent changes in visas by the American Embassy in Harare has adversely impacted thousands of Zimbabweans working on cruise ships.

Some ships have already notified Zimbabwean employees of termination and recruitment from Zimbabwe has been frozen.

At this juncture, cruise ship job recruitment by American Cruiseships of Zimbabweans has been put on ice.

The Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network (ZBIN) is obviously concerned as we championed the recruitment of cruise ships staff and even had a chartered plane from Carnival Cruise, landing at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Airport to pick up recruits back in June 2022.

It is difficult to come up with an accurate estimate of the number of Zimbabweans working on cruise ships, but it is important to factor in,

At least 600 recruited directly from Zimbabwe soil at job fairs held in Harare and Bulawayo by Msc Cruise in 2022 and 2023.

Thousands recruited from Job Fairs in South Africa from 2022 to 2024. Recruitments done in Joburg, Durban and Capetown.

Thousands of Zimbabweans also applied online and offered jobs from Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

From our forum ZBIN, we directly gave free advice to at least 1000 of our members who were successful from online applications and recruitments. A good number of them are still on the forum.

The US Embassy Harare Office was quoted by The Independent to have issued at least 2000 visas for cruise ship job applicants in 2023.

But the majority of visa applicants used the US Embassies in Maputo, Pretoria, Mbabane and Windhoek.

Therefore it’s safe to say up to 10,000 Zimbos impacted by the recent US Embassy Visa changes.

Earning an average annual salary of $10,000 per year. This means the country was earning an average of $100 million per year as most salaries were remitted back home.

We do not have the full facts as to why the visa tenures were reduced, but from social media reports; it seems the issue could be resolved.

We would also like to believe there is concern for the adverse impact, with high level attention given to the issue.

From our forum, most of those working on cruise ships are hard working youngsters with some helping families, raising capital for businesses and self improvement projects.

We therefore appeal for help on behalf of every Zimbabwean national, so that they keep their jobs and help the nation.

By default, collectively; they are also our investors. Some are participating in local projects banking funds in Zimbabwe.

We pray for resolution to the visas impasse as anxiety has gripped 10,000 cruise ship members, their families and dependants.

On behalf of ZBIN and Zimbabweans working on cruise ships.