Bulawayo comes together to spruce up city ahead of ZITF

AS part of preparations for the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, Bulawayo residents and other stakeholders came together on Monday morning to clean the city to spruce it up ahead of the annual showcase.

The trade expo roars into life tomorrow until Saturday. The first three days (April 23 to 25) are business days while April 26 and 27 are public days.

ZITF serves as a platform for showcasing technological innovations that can drive industrial growth and it encourages entrepreneurship by providing a platform for new businesses to connect with potential customers and investors.

Expectations are high that this year’s showcase, riding on the theme: “Innovation: The Catalyst to Industrialisation and Trade,” will position local industry players to clinch major deals and expand their market.

Kenyan President, Dr William Ruto, will officially open the country’s biggest annual trade expo on Friday.

Speaking after the cleanup campaign, Bulawayo Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Mr Paul Nyoni said that the Trade Fair is a big event not just for Bulawayo and this year the City is expecting a bigger crowd compared to last year hence the importance of the clean up.

“Generally the Trade Fair is a big event not just for Bulawayo but across the country. It’s not a small thing because even if you’re in Durban or Nairobi you still put it on your calendar, speaking of Durban and Nairobi, we have 26 countries exhibiting this year, last year we had 21 so it’s a growth that we have registered so we say we are bigger and better as we are looking at numbers. This year’s exhibitors are more than last year’s and of course Kenyan President William Ruto is making the official opening further exposing our Trade fair to another market. We are known for being a clean city and we want to keep that up.” he said.

Some of the city’s Councilors cleaned along Fort Street and Fourth Avenue to create a welcoming environment for visitors.

Ward 17 Councilor, who is also the deputy chairperson for the Health, Housing and Education Committee, Councillor Sikhululekile Moyo said it was important to keep a clean environment starting at individual level.

“Today we have a campaign to clean up Bulawayo and we were expecting to clean up the ZITF because we want our visitors to experience a clean environment. After realizing that ZITF is clean and various stakeholders were cleaning up that area we decided that as councilors we should clean the city center so that when our visitors tour the city they are met by a clean environment because as Bulawayo we take cleanliness very seriously and we also wish to go back to being the cleanest city in the country and we encourage residents to start by cleaning the homes because no one is going to make us clean but we have to be responsible for our own clean environment” she said.

Bulawayo Mayor Mr David Coltart applauded various stakeholders for participating in the cleanup campaign, taking to X he said.

“I am delighted to report that the eventual turn out at this morning’s clean up was excellent. Many people were deployed and cleaned including the Army on Harare Road, Prisons, BCC staff and EMA.”