After achieving independence in 1980, Zimbabwe initially nationalized much of its industry and froze the assets of foreign companies with investments in the country. Only recently has the government of Zimbabwe embarked upon an economic reform program intended to reduce the role of the government and promote private sector growth.
Employee ownership is seen as a potentially important component of that strategy.
Most of those companies are listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which itself has policies encouraging listed companies to share stock ownership with their employees. Of the companies that have already established employee-ownership plans, over half provide stock ownership benefits to both managers and employees. The trend towards shared ownership is growing, with over half of the plans having been established during the past two years. A large majority of the plans hold the employees' shares in trust funds and the average ownership stake is less than 4 percent of the stock outstanding, indicating that there is plenty of room for growth. The government itself is taking the lead by allowing employees of privatized companies to obtain ownership as part of the transaction.