Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
BOTH commerce and industry want more relaxations of the current coronavirus restrictions to further boost economic activity in the country.
Speaking to The Financial Gazette this week, amid growing business confidence levels, business leaders said authorities could now safely further open up the economy given the success of the ongoing vaccination programme and the declining Covid-19 infection and death rates in the country.
The president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), Kurai Matsheza, was among the captains of industry and commerce who said business was looking forward to a further relaxation of the current lockdown restrictions, to lift up the economy even more.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, governor John Mangudya and Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube
“As industry we would like to see a further adjustment of lockdown measures to enable more business activity. Of course, such a decision can only be made if infections are on a sustained downward spiral.
“To achieve that, vaccinations need to be intensified to move towards herd immunity. We urge all Zimbabweans to go for vaccinations and to continue to observe all WHO (World Health Organisation) protocols to stop the spread of Covid-19,” he said.
The president of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ), Israel Murefu, also said further relaxing the current coronavirus restrictions would boost the economy.
“The opening of schools must be a harbinger of better things to come from a perspective of businesses being allowed to operate and moving away from the shackles of the current lockdown measures.
“We thus, expect businesses to bounce back to the usual operating hours sooner rather than later.
“While Covid-19 infections and fatalities are tapering down, we still need to ensure as a nation that we adhere strictly to stipulated WHO and ministry of Health and Child Care protocols on safety and health so that we mitigate strongly the emergence of newer Covid-19 waves.
“Sceptics and anti-vaccination promoters must repent and smell the coffee, and not be a stumbling block to achieving herd immunity for the nation and at workplaces, because safety and health comes ahead of everything.
“We applaud authorities for the vaccination drive currently under way and if there is a way of accelerating it, we will be very supportive and ready to do whatever we can to assist that effort as businesses,” Murefu told The Financial Gazette.
“We expect the government to continue on the same vaccination drive to achieve herd immunity in the shortest possible time, and if possible before year end, or before another wave strikes.
“This should then be accompanied by a relaxation of the restrictive lockdown measures in place so that business activity picks up pace.
“We expect relaxations at the next review in just under a fortnight, if our wishes were to be realised, but obviously the power to amend the current measures lies with the government.
“We will keep our fingers crossed that these relaxations do come as they are good for business and the general citizenry,” Murefu added.
On its part, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), has said that it wants the current lockdown measures to be removed completely — to pave the way for uninterrupted economic activities in the country.
“The Zimbabwean economy cannot afford to continue being in-and-out of total lockdown, given the implications of the recurrent lockdown on business.
“In this regard, the government should open up the economy and allow businesses to operate at full-scale. No formal business should close its operations, but rather strictly adhere to WHO Covid-19 guidelines,” ZNCC chief executive officer, Chris Mugaga, said in a recent submission to authorities.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce CEO, Chris Mugaga
This comes after last week’s release of nearly US$1 billion to Zimbabwe by the IMF, through its Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which has further lifted business sentiment.
Organised business has since implored authorities to spend at least half of the windfall on the productive sector, to further stimulate economic growth and help companies to recover from the negative effects of Covid-19.
Speaking to The Financial Gazette last week, captains of commerce and industry said this was key as businesses continued to reel from the deadly pandemic, with many of them having failed to access the government’s coronavirus stimulus packages.
Mugaga was among the business leaders who said the private sector was praying that the government would allocate at least half of the SDRs to companies to capacitate them.
“We are requesting 50 percent of it (IMF bonanza) to support business or capacitate them — especially those businesses not accessing forex on the auction market,” he said.
On his part, Matsheza said the SDRs presented the country with an opportunity to further lift its economy.
“As industry, we recommend that the government deploys the funds in areas that benefit the broader economy. Industry will welcome a piece of the SDRs to enable our members to recover and to retool. SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) need to be nurtured and to be hand-held as they grow, and so is the productive sector.
“The funds must be used to support both economic recovery and social sectors. Health and education are such critical social sectors that need revamping and capacitating. “Support for the local currency is also another area where the SDRs can be deployed,” Matsheza told The Financial Gazette.
Economist Kipson Gundani said the SDRs should go towards building the country’s reserves and upgrading public infrastructure to attract investment.
“The economy is currently in desperate need of two things: a conducive environment for business and a stable currency. As such, I would argue that the SDRs should go towards building forex reserves and infrastructure development.
“The reserves will calm things down on the forex market and infrastructure will improve the operating environment, which in turn will attract investment, both domestic and foreign,” he said.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has since said that the SDR allocation will be used prudently, with authorities looking to “invest the money in future growth”.
“How we spend these funds is vital. We intend to focus the SDRs on areas that support … robust economic recovery and, importantly, support key social programmes.
“These SDRs will, therefore, target the areas that have been hit hardest by the pandemic and provide a crucial lifeline to the most vulnerable members of our society, many of whom are yet to feel the trickle down effects of the macro-economic stabilisation.
“While the majority of these programmes will roll out simultaneously, perhaps the vaccine acquisition is the most urgent.
“Within industry, manufacturing is vital in terms of job creation. We want to set up a ‘re-tooling fund’ that will enhance our value chains around cotton, leather, pharmaceuticals and agro-processing,” Ncube said.
“These are industries which used to thrive in Zimbabwe, but over the years crucial components of the value chain have been lost. It is in these carefully-mapped out areas where we must invest.
“These core components of a healthy industrial economy, the missing links of the value chain, will be brought back to life,” he said further.
“And last, but certainly not least, some of these funds will be used to maintain the incredible macro-economic stability, which has drawn praise from international institutions and globally-respected economists.
“We must continue to build our international foreign currency reserves to support the domestic currency, which has performed so valiantly, thus far.
“Setting aside resources to buttress the currency will ensure that the downward trend in inflation is maintained,” Ncube also said.
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