Zimbabwe has hired a second American consultancy firm, Avenue Strategies Global LLC, to lobby the United States government to drop sanctions against the southern African nation
Zimbabwe will pay Avenue Strategies $1,080,000 for the work. The new hiring comes shortly after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime splurged another $500,000 on another American consultancy firm, Ballard Partners, to spruce up the image of the country’s rulers.
The owner of the consultancy firm, Brian Ballard, is a top fundraiser for United States President Donald Trump’s election campaigns.
The revelation came as the broke Zimbabwe government is struggling to implement its reform agenda, which it blames on United States targeted sanctions, despite it moving slowly in implementing recommended economic and political measures.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade minister Sibusiso Moyo and Avenue Strategies Global LLC chief executive officer Barry Bennet signed the agreement on April 5, 2019.
While targeted sanctions have increased the risk of doing business in Zimbabwe, corruption, bureaucratic red tape, policy inconsistencies, lack of national engagement and property rights deficit have been singled out by investors as largely responsible for deterring investment.
The filing of Avenue Strategies Global LLC’s agreement with the Zimbabwean government with the US Department of Justice is required by the US Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.
Under this law, it requires that “agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a ‘political or quasi-political capacity’ disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances”.
