Let’s diversify: Industry minister

Industry and Commerce minister Sekai Nzenza on Tuesday said COVID-19 pandemic-induced challenges presented significant opportunities for the country to diversify.

Nzenza, who spoke during an African Union ministers of industry joint meeting in Niger, said the resilience and sustainability of African economies was in value-addition.

“The challenges brought about by the global pandemics and shocks presented new opportunities for diversification, innovation and self-reliance anchored on strengthening of interlinkages for regional and continental value chains,” Nzenza said.

She pointed out that raw commodity exports would not sustain the continent’s economies.

African economies have increasingly been investing in value-addition technologies across industries, but there is still concern that the pace of change has been slow.

“The resilience and sustainability of our economies lie in value-addition as opposed to export of raw commodities,” she said.

“In pursuit of that, Zimbabwe has undertaken sector-specific strategies under (the) mantra “moving the economy up the value chains” as espoused in the National Development Strategy 1. This has registered a success story for the Zimbabwean industry with increased capacity utilisation, investment and export-oriented growth.”-newsday