‘Businesses must be sensitive to consumer interests’

BUSINESSES should re-orient their models and place consumer interests at the centre by providing quality products at competitive prices, Industry and Commerce Minister, Dr Sekai Nzenza, has said.

Zimbabwean businesses generally stand accused of overpricing products for the sake of profiteering. In recent months consumer lobby groups and the Government have chided the businesses for colluding with the parallel market forces to maximise profits through distorted exchange rate gains. The exorbitant pricing structure is partly blamed for the influx of cheap imports and smuggling, which frustrate local industry viability.

Dr Nzenza stressed the need to safeguard consumer interests while delivering her keynote address during a two-day Industry and Commerce 2020 Strategic Planning Workshop, which ended in Bulawayo on Saturday.

“We must be cognisant of the consumer, sensitive to business by eliminating bottlenecks through the ease of doing business and promote growth through the creation of a favourable operating environment for emerging industries,” she said.

“2021 is the year we should facilitate for industry and enterprise’s production, productivity and profitability while placing the consumer at centre stage.”

The outcomes of the strategic planning workshop would feed into the National Development Strategy (2021-2025), a successor blueprint to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), which began in 2018 and expired this year. The industry and commerce sector is one of the key economic pillars hence the Government, under the Zimbabwe Industrial Development Policy, seeks to promote the development of vibrant, sustainable and globally competitive industrial and commercial enterprises through provision of enabling policy and regulatory framework.

Dr Nzenza said last week’s launch of the Consumer Protection Act by President Mnangagwa was a “milestone achievement” towards ensuring a fair, efficient, sustainable and transparent marketplace for consumers and business.

“Going forward, the ministry will be investing in the implementation of this Act through a rigorous communication strategy, which will arm the consumer with the information needed to protect their rights,” she said.

The new law is expected to equally revitalise industry and help provide quality goods and services, said President Mnangagwa. Under the provisions of the new law, unscrupulous businesspeople that engage in unfair practices that include multi-tier pricing, fraudulent offers, failure to label products properly and the disclosure of consumers’ personal information to third parties will be liable for prosecution. Consumers are now entitled to be fully refunded for defective or sub-standard goods and can individually approach the courts for redress or refer their complaints to the

Consumer Protection Commission set up in the new Act. The direct requirements for producers and retailers and the enforcement of consumer rights together apply pressure on producers to provide quality goods and services.-chronciel.co.zw