BOOST FOR COMPANIES. . . Funding package to support SI64: CZI Industrialists follow proceedings during CZI president Mr Busisa Moyo’s roundtable briefing at a Bulawayo hotel yesterday
Industrialists follow proceedings during CZI president Mr Busisa Moyo’s roundtable briefing at a Bulawayo hotel yesterday

Industrialists follow proceedings during CZI president Mr Busisa Moyo’s roundtable briefing at a Bulawayo hotel yesterday

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe are engaged in talks over a special funding package to boost production in companies whose products are listed under Statutory Instrument 64/2016.

CZI president Mr Busisa Moyo revealed this during the apex industrial representative body’s roundtable briefing in Bulawayo yesterday.
The meeting focused on matters pertaining to business and the state of the economy.

SI64/2016, which removes several goods from the Open General Import Licence, was promulgated in June this year to control the influx of cheap imports into the country.

Some of the products listed under the Statutory Instrument are cremora coffee creamers, camphor creams, cooking oil, white petroleum jellies, canned fruits and vegetables, bottled water, and dairy products.

“We have received legal or legislative support through SI64/2016 but there is funding or financial support that is required so that those companies (whose products are listed under SI64/2016) are able to seize the opportunities and we do not have shortages,” Mr Moyo told delegates.

“If you have protection and you do not have the working capital to be able to meet the demand you can end up with a serious problem.  So, we have talked to the Reserve Bank that can we see some support coming through.

“They have also requested from us that can we have a list of companies and I am sure some of you have heard about that”.

Mr Moyo said industry was worried that “very” little funding from the local banking sector was going into the manufacturing sector.

“The informal sector is much stronger in this country because the banks are lending more to individuals than to the manufacturing sector. So, if you lend to individuals what are they going to do? They are going to import as individuals.

“So the banking sector is actually incentivising and supporting imports by default because the lending is directed towards that,” he said.

Presenting the 2016 Mid-Term Monetary policy statement last month, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya indicated that lending to individuals continued to dominate the banking sector loan portfolio during the first half with 16,57 percent of the total loans advanced by local banks going to individuals.

During the period under review, the manufacturing sector received 15,38 percent.

“Money flows in an economy based on incentives . . . we have incentivised imports and that is why as CZI we are lobbying for a better environment because a better environment means more productivity in the country and less imports,” said Mr Moyo.

He applauded the Government for coming up with a series of protectionist measures through various legal instruments aimed at supporting local industry.

“Government has had a series of protectionist or support for local industry. It is a programme that has been ongoing and it is continuing and if history is a predictor of the future then you can see that the direction is very clear,” he added.

Since 2009, Zimbabwe has been recording a negative trade deficit due to an influx of cheap imported products from countries such as South Africa, China, Brazil and Japan.

@okazunga

You Might Also Like

Comments