“Do not be cry-babies,” Zim industry told
Zimbabwean businesses should move away from always complaining and start proposing concrete solutions to enhance the country’s economic competitiveness, according to Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu.
The Minister revealed this at the inaugural National Competitiveness Commission (NCC) Summit 2025 in Bulawayo last Thursday.
He urged industry representatives to shift from excessive lamentation over well-documented challenges to actionable problem solving.
The summit, themed “Building Sustainability Towards Enhanced Productivity and Competitiveness in Zimbabwe,” brought together industry stakeholders, including business leaders, economists and government officials, to address the challenges stifling industrial growth in the country.
During the discussions, business representatives from the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), and the CEO Africa Roundtable raised concerns over rising regulatory compliance costs and a struggling private sector, which they argued were undermining Zimbabwe’s economic competitiveness.
Zimbabwe currently ranks 124th globally and 20th in Africa in industrial competitiveness.
The business community cited macroeconomic instability, exchange rate volatility, pricing distortions, and a lack of harmony between monetary and fiscal policies as key barriers to growth.
However, Ndlovu said the government was not at the summit to merely listen to complaints, but to collaborate on solutions.
“The key outcome of this summit should be to consolidate and determine the key policy interventions needed to address these issues,” he said.
“We are here as Government to listen, not to listen to complaints and rantings. We are here to come up with a Zimbabwean story, a Zimbabwean solution to the challenges that we all acknowledge,” he said, pointing out that the challenges are well-documented and the focus should be on resolving them.
He noted that President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had officially opened the summit earlier on, had made it clear that bureaucratic red tape must be removed to improve the business climate.
One of the key concerns raised by business leaders was the high cost of regulatory compliance, which they argued is crippling the private sector.
Ndlovu acknowledged that certain government policy decisions, such as reducing the fiscal burden of supporting state-owned enterprises, had led to unintended consequences.
Speaking at the same occasion, Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Monica Mutsvangwa concurred with Ndlovu, urging business leaders to engage the government constructively rather than resorting to criticism.
“There is no ‘them’ and ‘us.’ That was in the First Republic. This is the Second Republic, your government. Make use of your government,” she said.
She added: “You are doing yourselves a disservice if you just sit back and mourn without putting it on the table so that we can all debate. You are doing a disfavour.”
Mutsvangwa acknowledged that regulatory costs were “truly” affecting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and women-owned businesses, noting that 51 regulatory licenses were required to operate a business.
“Certainly, that is the elephant in the room and has to be dealt with. If we are serious about formalising, there is a need to reduce those
costs,” she said.
New Ziana
