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Business Reporter

FINANCE and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, will this week meet stakeholders in Lupane, Matabeleland North province, for an outreach engagement on the progress Government has made in implementing the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP).

Government launched the TSP in October 2018 and the programme ends this year in December with an agenda to set the economy on a recovery path after years of stagnation. 

The two-year economic blueprint acknowledges policy reform initiatives of the new dispensation to stimulate domestic production, exports, rebuilding and transforming the economy to an upper middle-income status by 2030.

Matabeleland North Provincial Minister of State, Richard Moyo, confirmed the upcoming all-stakeholders’ engagement indaba in a telephone interview yesterday.

“On Friday, we are hosting the Minister of Finance (Prof Ncube) in Lupane where he is expected to convene a meeting with various stakeholders,” he said.

The outreach engagement, where Prof Ncube will be the guest of honour, will be held at Lupane Local Board Hall in the morning. Among others, traditional leaders, villagers, and legislators are expected to attend the event.

Under the TSP, the new political dispensation, which came into power in November 2017 led by President Mnangagwa, focuses on stabilising the macro-economy, and the financial sector, introducing necessary policy and institutional reforms to translate to a private sector-led economy, addressing infrastructure gaps and launching quick-wins to stimulate growth.

Prof Ncube is on record as saying implementation of reforms under the TSP has averted the economy from being weakened by the adverse exogenous factors, as Zimbabwe, like any other country, was not immune to the vagaries of the global economic climate.

Some of the critical policy reforms that have been implemented since the launch of the TSP include the introduction of the two percent Immediate Monetary Transaction Tax, the separation of Nostro foreign currency accounts (FCAs) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) FCAs.

Although some of the measures are austerity-based and a bitter pill to swallow, Minister Ncube highlighted that some of the positive outcomes that have already been recorded include the budget surplus Treasury was recording.

The short-term programme will be superseded by two five-year development strategies, with the first one running from  2021-2025, and the second covering  2026-2030.