DELTA Corporation and Caledonia Mining Corporation dominated this year’s edition of the prestigious Top Companies Awards that were held in Harare yesterday.
The awards, which celebrate Zimbabwe’s best-performing firms for their resilience, growth and contribution to the economy, are organised by The Financial Gazette — the country’s number one business publication and prime voice for industry and commerce — in close partnership with financial services giant, Old Mutual.
Beverage maker, Delta, was adjudged the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s best performer, with telecommunications giant, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, coming in as first runner up.
Gold miner Caledonia was the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange’s top performing company, while Padenga — which has also transitioned into mining — was first runner up.
Delta also got the disclosure and investor relations award, with Caledonia as the first runner up in the same category.
The Investor Returns Award was also split between the two bourses, with NMB winning on the ZSE and First Capital Bank on the VFEX.
Stanbic Bank took the top Banking awards, while Nicoz Diamond Insurance and ZB Life Assurance won the Non-Life Insurance and Life Insurance awards respectively.
In mining, Zimplats was named the Mining House of the Year.
The POSB scooped the inaugural disclosure and transparency for parastatals award.
There was also a new category, the special mention for improvement in rankings awards, which was awarded to Dairibord.
Seed Co scooped the environment, social and governance (ESG) award.
This year’s TCS edition ran under the theme, “AI for Zimbabwe: Leapfrogging from a Resources Economy to a Services Economy”.
Speaking at yesterday’s function, the chief executive of Old Mutual Zimbabwe, Sam Matsekete, urged local companies to take up opportunities brought about by the AI revolution.
“We cannot achieve the AI transformation without digital infrastructure.
“We need to integrate AI across all sectors and there are opportunities which come with it, including the immense energy needed for data centres which companies can actually invest in,” he said.
The group chief executive of Jester Media Services, Pilate Machadu, said this year’s theme underscored the catalytic power of artificial intelligence (AI) in positioning the country for growth and competitiveness.
“In this rapidly evolving digital age, the transformative power of AI cannot be overstated.
“It holds the potential to revolutionise industries, create new opportunities and propel Zimbabwe onto the global stage,” he added.
Tech expert and keynote speaker, Oswald Jumira — who is the chief executive of Liquid Cloud and Cyber — said Zimbabwe’s transition to an AI-powered digital economy had already begun.
“The Service industry is picking up. If you look at the top companies on the ZSE, except for Delta, all are services companies, mainly banks that are doing well in integrating AI into their operations.
“We are seeing some tectonic shift in banking,” he said.