Zimpapers Logo

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE US$100 million national budget surplus registered last year has helped the country carve out a successful Covid-19 vaccination programme, thus acting as a springboard to economic recovery amidst the adverse effects of the pandemic.

Zimbabwe has mainly used its own resources to support the fight against Covid-19. The country is among the leading nations in Africa when it comes to rolling out vaccines and its strategies have been commended by the World Health Organisation and health experts.

With more people being vaccinated, it is believed the economy will be fully opened as the Covid-19 recovery rate improves and mortality rate falls.

Speaking during the International Business Conference that was held yesterday at the ongoing Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said the surplus has been pivotal in the successful vaccination drive.

“If we did not have the surplus in 2020 of US$100 million, we would have been in deep trouble as a country, we would have not managed to acquire the vaccines. This is an economic recovery strategy and not just a health strategy for saving lives,” he said.

Following the vaccination programme, he said the economy was opening up and the country will continue to procure Covid-19 vaccines.

As part of the Covid-19 guidelines prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Zimbabwe has since the outbreak of the disease in the country in March last year, been embarking on national lockdowns.

Under the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the country is targeting to achieve a herd immunity of 10 million. And for herd immunity to be achieved, at least 60 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated.  “We also got 15 million syringes so far and we will make sure that we also get 20 million syringes in the next few months. We are doing a lot more for the economy again and in terms of Covid support, we are paying an allowance, we’ve been constructing quarantine centres, investing in logistics for moving the vaccines, PPE kits around and so forth,” said Prof Ncube.

He noted that the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated some economic challenges in Zimbabwe and the world at large.

Despite claiming lives and increasing down-time for business, he said the country was managing to navigate through the challenges.

He said: “The pandemic has claimed lives, it has also affected our economy but we are holding strong, the economy is recovering mainly led by the agricultural sector, other sectors also following on such as mining and there is recovering in the manufacturing sector.  The vaccination programme is an economic recovery strategy. Without vaccinating all of us, how do you open the economy safely?”

In the midst of the pandemic, Prof Ncube said Zimbabwe’s economic sectors had been impacted differently as some have been moderately affected while others seriously constrained.

“Those that are moderately affected include the transport and distribution sector, the financial services . . . the tourism sector clearly is severely affected; there has been an 80 percent drop in international passenger traffic across the world and 60 percent drop at least in the domestic tourism industry and a serious drop in aviation services and 90 percent drop in hotel occupancies,” he said.

“The foodstuffs manufacturing sector was also affected but not really so and the mining sector was also moderately affected by the pandemic and we expect a rebound and resilience in this sector.”

The sectors that have been affected but are resilient, Prof Ncube said include health and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

This, he said was in the sense that there has been an exponential production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in the health sector while the ICT industry has benefited through digital innovations to support the sectors of the economy.

“The ICT sector has actually benefited because two years ago we didn’t know anything called Zoom now everyone is zooming. There is the e-learning platform that has been developed to support our schooling systems. This shows that the schools are actually benefiting from the pandemic.

“The foodstuffs manufacturing sector has also benefited. It’s a long time since l last saw so many locally-produced goods on our shelves. Some silver lining coming out of the pandemic is what we see,” he said.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government projects that the economy will this year grow by 7,8 percent buoyed by a massive 34 percent growth in the agriculture, energy (14 percent), manufacturing (7 percent) and mining sector (5 percent).

“The construction sector has enjoyed a boom; I have never seen such a demand for cement in my life. The biggest demand by the way is not even by the roads that we are building financed by the Government, it’s coming from housing sector construction.

“Some of the diaspora remittances end up in the sector and that sector is actually booming, we are expecting a growth of 7,7 percent in 2021,” said Prof Ncube. — @okazunga