AfCFTA opportunities hinge on Zimbabwe closing competitiveness gap, ZNCC congress hears

AfCFTA opportunities hinge on Zimbabwe closing competitiveness gap, ZNCC congress hears

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Zimbabwe risks failing to benefit from new trade opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) unless it deals with competitiveness constraints that continue to limit exports, delegates heard at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) Annual Congress.

Discussions at the congress focused on the changing global trade environment, where preferential trade agreements and geopolitical competition are fragmenting markets, while African countries are pursuing integration through AfCFTA.

Participants argued that market access alone will not deliver export growth if local firms cannot compete on price, quality, standards and reliability in regional and international markets.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade official, Ms Rudo Faranisi, told the meeting that competitiveness should be the centre of Zimbabwe’s approach as it seeks to expand exports beyond minerals and primary commodities. “A country that doesn’t trade cannot prosper. We have to develop our own technologies that suit our needs. Education 5.0 is starting to entrench change and advance towards competitiveness. We need to know what is required to make our products internationally competitive. Competitiveness is our goal,” she said.

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United Nations Trade and Development figures presented at the congress showed Zimbabwe exported goods worth about US$7.4 billion in 2024, but the country still runs a merchandise trade deficit, importing more than it exports.

One indicator highlighted was the limited contribution of manufactured goods to export earnings. Delegates heard that manufactured products account for about five percent of Zimbabwe’s total merchandise exports, with World Bank data indicating manufactured exports made up 6.7 percent of merchandise exports in 2024.

Speakers said this matters because economies that export manufactured goods generally create more jobs and are less exposed to commodity price swings than those reliant on raw or semi-processed exports.

Delegates also noted the challenge is continent-wide, with primary commodities accounting for 76.8 percent of Africa’s merchandise exports in 2024. Several participants said AfCFTA should be treated as an industrialisation opportunity, not only a trade agreement.

The AfCFTA aims to establish a market of more than 1.4 billion people and is moving from negotiation towards implementation across much of the continent. However, practical obstacles to cross-border trade remain, including logistics costs and regulatory requirements.

President of the Limpopo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Albert Jeleni, urged businesses to take a more active role in integration efforts, particularly around cross-border value chains between Zimbabwe and South Africa’s Limpopo Province. “The private sector has been sleeping on duty,” he said.

Congress participants argued that while governments negotiate trade deals, companies determine whether trade happens in practice, and said the private sector should be more involved in shaping implementation. Delegates said Government’s role is to create an environment that allows business to maximise available opportunities.

The meeting also discussed preferential market access outside Africa, including China’s zero-tariff initiative for some African countries, and Zimbabwe’s preferential access to the European Union market through the Economic Partnership Agreement framework. Delegates said Zimbabwe has recorded stronger performance in horticulture exports to the EU, while other sector opportunities remain underutilised.

Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Zimbabwe, Mr Challa Getachew, drew attention to micro, small and medium enterprises, which make up most businesses in the country but often face the greatest barriers to exporting.

Constraints repeatedly raised at the congress included transport and logistics bottlenecks, regulatory burdens, compliance costs, infrastructure deficits and unreliable power supplies. Delegates linked these issues to wider research on trade competitiveness in Africa, which identifies high transport costs and multiple border inspections among persistent barriers to export growth.

Participants noted that as AfCFTA implementation gathers pace, countries with weak productive capacity risk becoming mainly consumers within the continental market. The World Bank has estimated that intra-African exports could rise by more than 80 percent if countries reduce barriers and improve infrastructure, but speakers cautioned that gains will depend on practical reforms.

Oxford Economics analyst Ms Raheema Parker was quoted warning that implementation challenges remain significant across the continent, particularly for smaller sub-Saharan economies that are more vulnerable to shocks and often have limited administrative and financial capacity.

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