Sikhulekelani Moyo [email protected]
BULAWAYO is now attracting significant investment after its designation as a Special Economic Zone, but the new industries may not mirror the city’s industrial past, Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndhlovu said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Strategic Planning and Review Workshop in Bulawayo on Friday, Minister Ndlovu said the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida) is operationalising Bulawayo’s SEZ status.
“What I know is that Bulawayo has been designated a special economic zone for years now. Zida has been dealing with the issue of how to tailor-make the incentives and support mechanisms to ensure industries in Bulawayo can fully explore these benefits,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said Bulawayo was as a result witnessing increased investments because of its new status.
“People however need to accept that the new industry in Bulawayo might not necessarily be the same as the industry of yesterday,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said he will next week visit some of the new factories in Bulawayo that have been attracted by the city’s special economic zone status.
“From a manufacturing perspective alone, Bulawayo received not less than US$100 million in investments between 2025 and 2026. This is very new,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said people underestimate the progress delivered by the Second Republic, citing the growth of the manufacturing sector.
“Let me give you one example of the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing sector in 2018 was valued at around US$3,7 billion.
“We had projected that by 2025 it would close at US$5 billion. So, we were projecting over five years, close to 8 percent growth.
“By the end of 2025, the manufacturing sector had reached US$8,2 billion,” he said.
He contrasted the current performance with the economy at Independence.
“By the time we got our independence, the GDP of this country, the entire economy of Zimbabwe as we inherited it from Rhodesia, from Smith, when you hear a manufacturing sector contributing 25 percent, that economy was worth US$6,65 billion. The manufacturing sector alone today is worth US$8,2 billion,” he said.
“We projected it would have surpassed US$12 billion by the time we get to 2030. We have more than doubled the value of the manufacturing sector in six years. And we expect that the GDP of this country by 2030 will have surpassed US$100 billion.”
Minister Ndlovu said the industrial base has fundamentally changed from the old Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco)-anchored system.
“We, of course, were anchored on the iron and steel company, Zisco. What we have now is perhaps three, if not more, times bigger. And it then means if they want to reconnect with what we had in the foundry and steel ecosystem, they have to be prepared to double what we had in 2008 when Zisco collapsed,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said while progress is evident nationally, Bulawayo can do better.
“We will be engaging Bulawayo. We believe they need to be more aggressive than they are. We are seeing good progress in other areas in the manufacturing sector. We think Bulawayo can do a little bit better than they are doing. But there is progress all the same,” said Minister Ndhlovu.
Zimbabwe produces between 50 000 and 60 000 tonnes of iron and steel products each month.
Steel export earnings reached US$137 million in the first half of 2026, surpassing the US$92,1 million recorded in the 12 months of 2025.
Zimbabwe’s historical peak crude steel production reached 1 million to 1,2 million tonnes annually during its industrial prime in the late 1980s and 1990s, driven by Zisco.
Through the US$1,5 billion Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco) plant in Manhize, completed in mid-2024, the Chinese-owned steel manufacturing giant is in phase one of production.
DISCO’s phase one has reached 100 percent utilisation producing 600 000 tonnes per year. This means total output is roughly half of the historical peak.
The company is implementing an expansion to phase two, which will lift capacity to 1,2 million tonnes annually (effectively matching the historical peak).
