Zim firms risk losing out on AfCFTA

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Zimbabwe companies risk being outperformed in the pan-African free trade area if they fail to produce quality products, the Africa Development Futures Group chairman Nkem Khumbah has warned.

Khumbah said local companies should take advantage of reduced tariffs and a consolidated continental market, with huge potential spinoffs.

He said local companies should not underestimate the long-run benefits of the single continental market, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is regarded by many as a tool for transformative growth in Africa.

“There is a need to upgrade local products in order to compete in regional markets, under the AfCFTA and globally. Competitiveness mainly depends on the quality of goods, which should be better than others of a comparable nature,” Khumbah told Business Times on the sidelines of the recent Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) congress.

He said there was a need for the business and industrial sector in Zimbabwe to position itself to embrace the new opportunities for development of the country and the continent as the AfCFTA inaugurated the beginning of a new era in Africa’s global evolution.

CZI president, Kurai Matsheza, said local manufacturers have to up their game as regional and global integration is accelerating.

“We are not placed in a special league, we are viewed in relation to the rest of the world, and there are no exceptions or exemptions. Quality standards are the same everywhere and if we do not meet the requirements of such, we cannot trade our goods or services with the rest of the world,” Matsheza said.

He added: “Our contribution to and subjection to national, regional and global policies is going to be determined by how much we embrace the regional and global markets.”

The AfCFTA is expected to boost Africa’s continental economy from US$3 trillion size in 2020 to some US$8 trillion by 2030.

Khumbah said the AfCFTA offers tremendous opportunities for increased human interaction and commerce to create conditions for new, yet to be conceived companies and whole industries to emerge.

 

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