Zimpapers Logo

Zimbabweans yesterday woke up to very refreshing news that the economy is this year projected to grow by 3,7 percent. Presenting the 2016 National Budget Review and 2017 Outlook to Parliament on Thursday, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said growth prospects were positive due to strong performance of agriculture and modest rebound of global metal prices.

He said revised economic growth target is now 3,7 percent up from the 2,7 percent that Cde Chinamasa had forecast when he presented the 2017 National Budget last December. Minister Chinamasa said positive results were already evident with this year’s strong recovery of agriculture estimated to yield a commendable 21,6 percent growth.

What is encouraging is that Government has already started preparing for the next cropping season and resources for inputs and other requirements have already been mobilised. The improvement in the price of metals is also another very positive development which should see the mining sector registering some growth.

On Wednesday, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Fred Moyo said Government had identified one million hectares of protected mining land across the country that will be allocated to small-scale miners. He said the bulk of this identified land had gold deposits. Small scale miners are contributing a significant percent of the national gold output and this new mining land is set to further boost production.

Government had since last year been working on a number of programmes to enhance ease of doing business and the results are already evident in some sectors of the economy. The challenge is therefore to build on these positives that should see a number of closed companies re-opening.  Zimbabwe’s economy is agro-based and the recovery of agriculture will obviously impact positively on many companies.

Many food processing companies were importing raw materials following successive years of drought but now that the country has harvested enough, most of these raw materials will be sourced locally and this will save the much needed foreign currency. Government has since banned the importation of maize because the country harvested enough maize to meet its consumption.

What this means is that the money which was being spent to import food will now be allocated to other sectors. Many companies are in urgent need of working capital and some of these could benefit from such savings. Zimbabwean farmers shamed the prophets of doom by proving that they have the capacity to fully utilise the land.

When Government embarked on a programme to allocate land to the landless Zimbabweans in prime farming areas which used to be a preserve of the minority whites, prophets of doom claimed that the country was going to be a basket case because the new farmers had no capacity to produce.

The new farmers, as already stated, proved these prophets of doom wrong. Zimbabwe has all that is needed to grow the economy and all that is required is a shared vision. The country is not only endowed with natural resources such as minerals but it also boasts highly skilled manpower. Zimbabwe’s professionals are sought after globally hence they are found all over the world.

We want at this juncture to implore all Zimbabweans to work hard so that the country can realise or surpass the target economic growth rate this year.