President Ncube tours Bulawayo Industries

MDC President  Prof Welshman Ncube who is also the Minister of  International Trade, Industry and Commerce began a tour of the Bulawayo industries on Friday and today held a meeting with the captains of industry at a local hotel.

His visit comes after Bulawayo has been hit by company closures and relocations mainly to Harare sighting some challenges such as water shortages and capitalisation. This year alone Bulawayo has lost about 87 companies which has left twenty-thousand people jobless.

The industrialists told the MDC President that capitalisation of the companies after the dollarization of the economy was their main challenge and access to the credit lines locally was still impossible for the industry in Bulawayo. They told the President that the issue of company closures in Bulawayo must be treated as an urgent matter as the livelihoods of both the employer and the employees were at risk.

However some companies felt that as suppliers one other big challenge was the relocation of the procurement offices of the parastatals from Bulawayo to Harare.

“We have an example of ZESA that  procurement office left Bulawayo  to Harare recently once these  offices are there it means that the  Bulawayo companies will never supply ZESA with anything, thus those that were supplying are already dead or relocating to Harare, it would be a good strategy if such offices return” one industrialist said.

In response to the concern of the industry Prof Ncube acknowledged that the problems facing the Industry of Bulawayo were very serious. He said after visits he had made to the Bulawayo Industries he reported this crisis to the Cabinet which recommended a taskforce that he chairs to look into the ways to assist the Bulawayo Industry.

“ the challenges that you face go beyond the bank’s ability, what we need is for the government to make sure that you (industry) access the capital, something has to be done to save the Industry, I want to make sure that by the 5^th of July I would have made the cabinet aware of these findings” Prof Ncube said.