George Guvamatanga
HARARE – Zimbabwe has raised $100 million for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines as the southern African country struggles to contain the second wave of the pandemic which has already claimed more lives this year than the whole of last year.
In a statement to the press, Finance Secretary George Guvamatanga said, the southern African country has managed to mobilise the required vaccination funding up to $100 million.
“We managed to mobilise through various structures up to $100 million for procurement of vaccines,” said Guvamatanga.
He said the money will allow the country to inoculate about 60% of its population estimated to be around 15 million people.
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Busisa-Moyo
Zimbabwean products will struggle to compete with goods produced in South Africa on international markets for as long as the country continues to depend heavily on raw materials from the neighbouring country, study findings reveal.
A study jointly conducted by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and ZimTrade, found that Zimbabwe depends heavily on South Africa for 58 percent of raw materials it requires, on average, for key manufacturing activities.
However, this is despite the fact the bulk of such raw material inputs could be produced locally, which would save a great deal of the elusive foreign currency in critical short supply.
INDUSTRY has proposed a raft of policy interventions, including bold measures for local sourcing of inputs and production of goods, to counter the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The outbreak of the coronavirus globally has resulted in national lockdowns that have disrupted trade, value and supply chains across the world, which have also negatively affected economies heavily dependent on imports such as Zimbabwe.
CZI information gathered was key in the implementation of the local content as well as the industrialisation and export policies as “we swim in the uncharted waters of Covid-19”.
It said the economy needed to achieve some measure of self-reliance in view of Covid-19 and its restrictions to trade and movement.
The Zimbabwe Independent
TATIRA ZWINOIRA
INDUSTRY experts have decried the decision by the central bank to increase the export retention threshold to 40% as it will affect production targets of manufacturers at a time the government is prioritising productivity.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya revealed that in the (RBZ) Monetary Policy Committee meeting on January 7, a number of decisions were made including that of increasing the export surrender requirement to 40% from 30% on all export receipts.
And while the RBZ, simultaneously, scrapped the compulsory requirement to liquidate all unutilised export proceeds after 60 days, the increased export retention threshold is expected to hurt businesses production plans.