Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
ZIMBABWE is targeting a local content threshold of 80 percent for the raw materials used in every locally-manufactured product under a rating and certification system that was launched in September.
According to Buy Zimbabwe chairman, Munyaradzi Hwengwere, the key to achieving this would be the introduction of incentives for local manufacturers, which would help lower the cost of local goods.
Industry and Commerce minister Sekai Nzenza
“Our hope is that in the next five years, any product that is said to be made in Zimbabwe has a minimum of 80 percent local content.
“But to do that we have to rate our products. One of the issues that we have and working with the ministry of Industry as well as the ministry of
Finance is how do we incentivise local producers in terms of the actual value in the product and I am hoping that minister Mthuli Ncube will say something about this in the national budget.
“We all agree that we need to create wealth and we need to create jobs, but I think we need to agree on the specifics on how we achieve that. As Buy Zimbabwe, we believe that it is actually what is contained in the product, the raw material values that can take us there,” Hwengwere said.
The Buy Zimbabwe Week is running under the theme “Anchoring economic growth on local content”. The campaign has seen brand ambassadors selected from tertiary institutions encouraging consumers to buy local products in some retail shops.
Buy Zimbabwe will also host a Buy Local Summit and organise a Made in Zimbabwe Expo to be held in December.
“We are always looking at awareness — getting Zimbabweans to buy local products, private sector companies buying from each other and public procurement. The public procurement space is an important space. That is why we have been talking about the public procurement index. We need to track expenditure under public procurement,” Hwengwere said.
He added that the campaign was also looking into ways that could be used to track and rate local content in the informal sector.
Buy Zimbabwe has, over the years, emphasised the importance of specific local content quotas.
“Local content must be defined because local can mean anything, one percent, two percent or any other figure,” Hwengwere said.
Industry minister, Sekai Nzenza, earlier this year said the government would ensure the utilisation of local resources in the pharmaceutical value chain to reduce over-reliance on imports and create employment using the local content rating strategy.
According to Nzenza, one of the greatest challenges for the pharmaceutical sector was that it was hugely dependent on imported active ingredients.
“So, going forward we want to ascertain how much of those active ingredients are made in Zimbabwe,” Nzenza told the media at the launch of the local content rating and certification system in September.
She said local content measurement and rating would be used as a key performance indicator for the pharmaceutical strategy and added that manufacturers should take advantage of this initiative to ensure that their products meet the required standards.
“While this is a positive development, there is a need to produce quality products that are competitive locally as well as on the international market,” Nzenza said.
“We believe this initiative will help boost local production and preference of locally-produced goods and services while strengthening domestic value chains.
“The outcome can only be more jobs and wealth created for our country.”
The government has touted increasing local production in the pharmaceutical sector as one of its main priorities over the next four years.
“The strategy we have adopted focuses on six key areas whose target should have been achieved by 2025.
“That is to increase the market share of local pharmaceutical products from 12 to 35 percent by 2025, to increase local production of essential medicines from 30 to 60 percent by 2025, to increase sales revenue of local production from $31,5 million to $150 million,” Nzenza said.
Zimbabwe’s pharmaceutical market is estimated at US$224,5 million, comprising both imported and locally produced medicines. It also includes donated medicines, which are also imported.
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