Chronicle Editor
Judith Phiri Business Reporter THE Buy Zimbabwe Campaign has noted that there is need to promote youths’ small scale businesses as part of efforts to rejuvenate the Great Zimbabwean Brands promotion. In an interview, Buy Zimbabwe Campaign chairman Mr Munyaradzi Hwengwere said business in the country has become more elitist with young people’s businesses lagging behind.
“Normally these days business has become an elitist unit, we need to promote a lot of young people’s small-scale businesses so that we can say this product is from Musa or Ntombizodwa. Once you start realising that the product is made by people around yourself chances are you will like the product,” said Mr Hwengwere. He also noted that once people start promoting products from small-scale businesses, there are high chances of reducing the ‘us against them’ mentality.
“People think when we talk about Buy Zimbabwe, we are only promoting people who made money long back but what about those who are upcoming. “We need to make sure that manufacturing is demystified and not seen as a complex thing so that young people can also see the sense in Buy Zimbabwe.”
He also said that as they work towards rejuvenating the Great Zimbabwean brands promotion they have signed agreements with a number of media partners, so as to run an awareness campaign that is effective and which people can relate to and be able to buy into it.
Mr Hwengwere highlighted that the Great Zimbabwean Brands promotion has been redesigned to make people understand that there are products that are actually great in Zimbabwe.
“There are great products here in Zimbabwe that have been made but also upcoming ones among those thinking of a new product. Some say where are the products, the answer is they are either o n the shelves or in the head. “We want to promote Buy Zimbabwe products in a way that we have never done before,” he added.
He noted that they were particularly delighted to reinvigorate the campaign given the fact that Government has for the first time since they launched Buy Zimbabwe, 10 years ago, said they will support them. “But without the stories being told of what makes Zimbabwe what it is — the Zimbabwean brands, the challenges and the opportunities, Buy Zimbabwe will remain a talk show.
We hope we can move on this journey as Buy Zimbabwe with our partners in the industry, consumers and Government to ensure that we create jobs, wealth and pride.” Mr Hwengwere said the goal was not to discourage importing but to build competitiveness among locally manufactured products and importing only that which could not be made or manufactured locally.
Since the formation of the organisation in 2011, the drive for the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign is a prosperous Zimbabwe where jobs, wealth and pride are guaranteed for all.
Meanwhile, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube in the 2021 budget statement indicated for the first time that Buy Zimbabwe will receive support from the fiscus in a move welcomed by advocates of the buy local campaign. The statement also states that for exports promotion the country targets to grow manufactured exports by 4.1 percent in 2021 from an estimate of 3.6 percent in 2020. This will be achieved through focusing on diversifying exports into non-traditional markets and exploiting existing preferential trading agreements with various countries.
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