In the midst of the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, some good news came this week: the Ministry of Health and Child Care announced on Tuesday that Zimbabwe will receive 2 million vaccine doses today.
This is a major boost to the country’s vaccination programme which has been accelerated as Zimbabwe targets herd immunity.
To date Zimbabwe has received 2.260m vaccine doses. It has bought 1.2m and 500,000 Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccine doses respectively.
It has also received donations—500,000 Sinopharm, 35,000 Covaxin donated by India and 25,000 Sputnik V donated by diamond producer, Alrosa.
Barring the shortages last month, Zimbabwe has acquitted herself well in the vaccination programme ahead of other established regional peers. Zimbabwe was one of the few countries in the world which had the vaccine but no takers.
On our part, we turned three on Monday: three years of cutting edge journalism.
When AB Communications, our parent, assembled a team of youth and experience, no one gave us a chance.
Some colleagues in the industry were already writing our obituary by the time we launched on July 5, 2018.
Their reason was that the market was hostile to new players.
They listed a number of new projects that would not survive up to their first anniversary.
At our launch edition, we promised to uphold journalistic ethics to ensure that our stories are not only credible but position Business Times as the paper of record.
We pledged that we will not be pliable to the whims of political and business actors. We also pledged to make the paper and all its platforms a marketplace of ideas.
We have ticked all the boxes.
Where we used to deliver the paper in your homes, offices and traffic intersections every Thursday, it is now being delivered by email to our subscribers.
Our e-paper model gives us the platform to give our valued customers as much content as possible unlike a physical copy whose size is mainly determined by the amount of the advertising space.
Our salmon colour has stood out: symbolising the rosy outlook that many Zimbabweans dream of when the dust has settled.
Fiscal and monetary authorities say we are on the homestretch to the Promised Land citing the drop in inflation figures and the stability of the exchange rate due to the auction system.
They cite the good 2020/21 agricultural season as the anchor of the growth despite the impact of Covid-19.
We pay tribute to our business partners: advertisers and subscribers for believing in us. Th at trust has emboldened and galvanised us to produce a product that stands out in the market.
We invite corporates to walk with us and for those that have been sitting on the fence, the time is now.
For our partners, the e-paper will introduce new sections to cater for our various publics.
We know no other business other than Redefining Business as our pay-off line boldly states.
