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Nqobile Bhebhe, [email protected]

THERE is an urgent need for the local manufacturing sector to upscale the production of quality products to feed the market and guard against the influx of imports as that will place the country on a positive trajectory to benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Buy Zimbabwe chairperson Munyaradzi Hwengwere has said.

Additionally, Mr Hwengwere is of the view that it is imperative to accelerate programmes that reward companies with high local content while disincentivising the appetite for imports, especially in areas where there is the capacity to produce locally.

According to Buy Zimbabwe’s annual 2023 report, Mr Hwengwere noted that Zimbabwe has operated in a negative trade balance for the past four years in focus.

He said based on ZimStat figures, the cumulative deficit in that period was US$6,8 billion, with cumulative imports amounting to US$31 billion while exports were US$21,2 billion.

“A closer examination will indicate that while exports continue to grow, appetite for imports is outstripping the positive export growth. In addition, most exports are of un-beneficiated primary products while imports are value-added goods, especially petroleum products,” he said.

He highlighted that the positive GDP growth of the past years demonstrates that the country can reverse years of economic stagnation.

“The growth in uptake of Made in Zimbabwe products to an average of 65 percent in most formal retail outlets from an average of below 30 percent in 2010 further shows the willingness by both consumers and producers to produce and buy local.

“Zimbabwe, in our view, needs concerted efforts to address constraints in areas where imports remain high,” said Mr Hwengwere.

He added that with the coming on board of AfCFTA which is estimated to have a combined GDP of US$2 trillion dollars, it is important for Zimbabwe to enhance her local productive capacity.

“AfCFTA has set stringent local content conditions. Without a robust buy-local initiative with set local content thresholds, the opportunities in Africa will be missed. Even then, our public and private sectors must commit to a minimum quota of local purchases. Not doing so will continue to limit our growth and impact negatively on the recovery of our economy.”

The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of ‘Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want’ and provides a framework for increased regional production and exports.

By eliminating barriers to trade in Africa, the objective of the AfCFTA is to significantly boost intra-Africa trade, particularly trade in value-added production and trade across all sectors of Africa’s economy.

Zimbabwe is one of the pioneer countries that embraced the AfCFTA which offers a huge market estimated at trillions of US dollars with more than 1,2 billion people.

Guided by the National Development Strategy (NDS1:2021-2025), the Government and the private sector agreed on the need to up-scale industry operations through leveraging on comprehensive policy reforms being undertaken by the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa.

Under NDS1, the country has committed to spearheading a dual strategic thrust towards private sector-led economic growth and export-led growth.

Related to this is the drive to create a favourable operating environment through ease of doing business reforms, supported by international re-engagement on all fronts with a focus on economic diplomacy.

The country expects these strategies to boost not only intra-Africa trade but also penetration of global value and supply chains.

This year, Buy Zimbabwe has lined up a number of programmes anchored on four pillars namely, accelerated engagement with the public sector to ensure that local content requirements are enforced, achieve 80 percent top-of-mind awareness on local products, development of the local database to track domestic producers and link them to markets and to implement local content rating programmes in partnership with the Standards Association of Zimbabwe and Quality Management Institute of Zimbabwe.