The History of AAG

Affirmative Action Group (AAG) is an empowerment and pressure group formed in response to the failure of modernization and trickledown economics of the pre-1980s. This resulted in the marginalisation of vulnerable groups such as the blacks, women, disabled, children and the elderly. This led to the widespread belief of the state’s inability to intervene successfully on behalf of the poor majority, who found themselves languishing in poverty, and at the periphery of, and excluded from the mainstream economic activity. Feeling disempowered, a group of courageous black businessmen started challenging the status quo. Out of these frustrations, Dr Philip Chiyangwa, and the late Peter Pamire formed AAG in 1994. It was during these years that indigenous black Zimbabweans found it difficult to penetrate markets and empower themselves. Other lobby groups such as Industrial Development Cooperation (IDC) had failed to influence swift changes within the economic environment in favour of the indigenous people.

Branches of AAG

The organization has since evolved to become an international brand with presence in:

• Zimbabwe (HQ)
• South Africa
• USA/Canada
• Europe/UK
• China
• UAE
• Australia/New Zeeland
• Poland

Mandate of AAG

AAG’s mission is to bring empowerment to the people of Zimbabwe. To empower is loosely defined as “to give power to”, or “to enable” someone. By this, AAG has been commissioned by the government to empower its people, by bringing the much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country and help participate actively in the rebuilding of the second republic. AAG is therefore enjoying a special relationship and alliance with government in as far as mobilization of investment into the country is concerned.

Although empowerment has remained at the core of the organisation’s vision, the directive of AAG has equally expanded to include:

• Investment promotion to Zimbabweans in the diaspora
• Investment promotion to foreign investors
• Economic inclusion

Through AAG, investors are given a priority status to meet the key stakeholders, get licences, and remove any potential bottlenecks that may delay or impact the experience of ease of doing business in Zimbabwe.

The message is clear. Zimbabwe’s ease of doing business is the only competitive advantage the country will use to attract new investors. As such, every investor must be treated in such a way that they feel comfortable and confident of the policy environment, regulatory, economic and political climate.

National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1)

AAG is aligned to the NDS1, and, is driving the facilitation and enablement of a digital economy.  Under the NDS1, the thrust is to facilitate achievement of an e-enabled economy where all sectors embrace ICT to improve efficiency in line with global trends.

The focus area under Digital Economy is a digitally enabled economy and the desired outcome is improved access and usage of ICTs.

The main objectives of NDS1 is to:

• Increase internet penetration from 59.1% in 2020 to 75% by 2025.
• Increase mobile penetration rate to 100% by 2025.
• Increase percentage compliance to ICT policies and regulations from 75% to 85%.

AAG intends to transform the economy to be representative of the demographics of the country, specifically the race demographics.

It is against this backdrop, that AAG has undertaken to take the lead in focusing on the ICT pillar and identify reputable, credible and reliable partners globally, that can help Zimbabwe achieve her NDS1 objectives, and vision 2030.

As part of achieving that ambition, AAG will also be fulfilling the goal and ambition of government for Image building and International Engagement and RE-engagement.

As AAG group, we understand that the route to empowerment is through involvement, accompaniment  and active participation. This requires the strengthening of the meaning and reality of principles of inclusiveness (i.e. engaging the relevant stakeholders in a process of change), transparency, and accountability, which gives legitimacy to any process or decision reached.  The stakeholders in the empowerment process include government, planners and policy makers, private sector organizations and other elements of the civil society at the international, national and local levels. Effective empowerment requires the understanding of key indigenous policies and their impact on your investment, and AAG is there to assist one to navigate and comply with the localization policies accordingly.

Overall, AAG is an integrated and coherent socio-economic process. It is located within and is part of the implementation of the indigenization of the country. It is aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past by seeking to substantially and equitably transfer and confer the ownership, management and control of Zimbabwe’s financial and economic resources to the majority of its citizens. It seeks to ensure broader and meaningful participation in the economy by black people to achieve sustainable development and prosperity.