Story by Davison Vandira
ECONOMIC Analysts have been impressed by Zimbabwe’s economic turnaround efforts which have seen the industry’s capacity utilisation going up to 66 percent, while shelf occupancy of locally manufactured products is now at 80 percent.
Three years of continuous retooling and adoption of new industrial technologies are now bearing fruit as the entire 94 industrial sub-sectors of the economy are performing above expectations giving impetus to Zimbabwe’s re-industrialisation agenda.
The manufacturing sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 15 percent in 2019 to 18.4 percent in 2021, with manufactured exports growing from US$383 million to US$404 million during the same period.
These statistics have charmed economic analysts who believe the country has laid an economic foundation that is commensurate to the targeted vision for 2030.
“The figures from industry are a welcome development to Zimbabwe’s economic development journey as they are a clear dashboard that can be used to track progress as such we will continue to make necessary analysis,” said Mr Luxon Zembe an economist.
“As the private sector, we are very happy with the significant progress that industry has made over the past year and as we approach the New Year we would like to build on these gains to strengthen the industrialisation agenda,” said Mr Christopher Mugaga, ZNCC’s CEO.
“I want to pay tribute to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for providing the platform that gave the industry the leeway to grow as the auction platform made sure raw materials and Machinery were adequately imported,” said Professor Gift Mugano, an economist.
The second republic’s desire to liberate the country from imports through increasing domestic productivity towards self-sufficiency is the driving force behind the industrialisation thrust.
