Top Firms Tapping Diaspora Human Capital to Boost Zimbabwe Economy
Jabangwe-Morris felt she had given all she could to other countries and decided to go back to Zimbabwe.
WASHINGTON — The continued call for Zimbabweans in the diaspora to return home and help revive the country's economy is continuing with the head of eco-cash a branch of Econet Wireless Natalie Jabangwe–Morris saying she heeded the call a year ago and has not regretted her decision. Mrs Jabangwe-Morris was one of the executives who attended a recent Africa Business Conference at the Harvard University Business School that sought to bring the African business community, students and others together to discuss and share ideas on what roles Africans in the diaspora can play in reviving their home economies. "My decision to move back home stems back from my college days where I studied at Spelman college in Georgia our tag line was " who much is given much is required,'' and that's always carried as part of a key personal value in the African region as the second most literate country, sitting at 97% of literacy rate, the majority of Zimbabweans out there are well educated and are running fortune 500 countries when we have a country that is not doing so well, and when you look at that balance there has to be something wrong with it," said Mrs Jabangwe-Morris. Mrs Jabangwe-Morris grew up in a family of boys a situation that prepared her and shaped her character of always taking risks without fear of failure. She says it is that determination that saw her dropping her love of the arts to take up engineering. She says she felt she had given all she could to other countries and decided to go back to Zimbabwe instead of complaining about the challenging economic situation she decided to help change it for the better. "I felt that I had done all that I could for myself, for other countries abroad but I sat there as one of those people that always complained about Zimbabwe's governance, about its future, about what was happening in my country which had given me so much and to which I was not giving much. I decided instead of sitting back, I needed to give back to Zimbabwe because it had given me so much. That really is my quest of why I returned back to the continent and Zimbabwe specifically," said Mrs Jabangwe-Morris. She added that her parents played a big role in her decision to move towards the technological sector through studying engineering they refused to fund her law degree unless she changed her career choice to one that would match growing trends which at that time was technology. " Absolutely ordinary is how I describe myself went to a regular school in Zimbabwe, Chinhoyi high school to be specific I loved the arts but my parents refused to pay for my law degree and sat me down saying they would not pay for anything that is not computer science,” she said. "They spotted the trends and really charted them well I have everything to thank them for, for being visionaries, for spotting the trends for someone coming from the Arts to excel in Engineering shows you that anybody can make it," she added. Mrs Jabangwe-Morris joins many other highly skilled Zimbabweans who have been scouted to join some top local companies like Econet Wireless and many others to help revive the economy.