Golden Sibanda, Harare Bureau
THE Government has been called to simplify export procedures to refocus local producers to benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which opens a 1,3 billion people market.

Bulawayo-based industrialist who is also United Refineries Limited (URL) chief executive officer, Mr Busisa Moyo, said this as he noted that the AfCFTA market will drive demand for goods, which will help increase the currently diminished capacity utilisation of Zimbabwean companies.

He pointed out that significant growth in plant utilisation in 2020 was largely in part a result of strong demand, locally though, when imports were restricted. This saw industrial plant usage grow from 36 percent to an average 47 percent. Industry is targeting 61 percent capacity, but has requested a number of impediments to be addressed for this to happen.

Mr Moyo, who also chairs the Zimbabwe Investment Development Authority (ZIDA) and the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) boards, said AfCFTA will have similar effect of growing industrial output if authorities address the myriad of constrains tripping firms, among them the litany of complex procedures for one to export goods.

He gave, as examples, nearly 20 documents his company URL require to export.

“I think it is high time we simplify. I am not asking us to take away the documents, but to simplify the process because a lot of industries face this challenge in the area of simplification,” Mr Moyo noted.

Manufactured exports currently constitute about 16 percent of total exports and industry believes there is significant room to expand the export basket, which is hugely dominated by raw exports, especially minerals and tobacco.

The ZIDA chair said entrenching macro-economic stability (exchange rate, inflation), political will, efficient infrastructure (borders, roads, ICT)), retooling finance (structured finance), competitiveness and retraining will be among key requirements to tap into AfCFTA.

He was speaking during a recent virtual seminar on AfCFTA, which came into force in January 2021 and seeks to create more demand for economies across Africa, Zimbabwe included.

AfCFTA is the African continent’s most ambitious integration initiative, embedded in the Agenda 2063 of the African Union, whose main objective is to create a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of people and investments.

The AfCFTA is expected to increase intra-Africa trade from an existing level of about 13 to 25 percent or more through better harmonisation and coordination of trade liberalisation.

The signing of the deal at continental level creates a market of about 1,3 billion people with estimated combined gross domestic product (GDP) of over US$3,4 trillion.

So far, 54 out of 55 African countries, Zimbabwe included, have signed the trade agreement to allow duty free access of goods and services on the continent.

Zimbabwe is already doing export business and has basic infrastructure in place but needs certain structural and policy flaws straightened to optimise returns from exports.

Tanganda managing director Henry Nemaire, who chairs CZI’s trade committee, said the Government needs to work on impediments to exporting, stressing that most exporters are currently taxed at more than 100 percent.