Marilyn Mutize
The 25th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Summit in Harare presents Africa with an opportunity to confront a fundamental economic question of how the continent can turn its enormous market into a powerful engine of production, industrialisation and shared prosperity?
For too long, the promise of regional integration has been measured largely through agreements, trade liberalisation and commitments to cooperation.
While these remain important, the ultimate test of integration must be whether African countries are producing more, processing their own resources, expanding businesses, creating employment and retaining a greater share of the wealth generated by their economies.
This is where the summit’s theme, “One Market, One Future: Advancing Inclusive Industrialisation, Investment and Regional Integration in COMESA”, becomes particularly significant.
It places production and investment at the centre of the region’s development ambitions and offers Zimbabwe an opportunity to help shape a more practical, results-oriented approach to economic cooperation. The 21-member regional bloc represents a substantial economic opportunity, bringing together a market of about 640 million people. Yet the true value of such a market lies not simply in the number of consumers it contains, but in the capacity of its countries to meet their needs through competitive African industries.
A market of this size should support thriving manufacturing industries, interconnected agricultural value chains, modern processing facilities and businesses capable of supplying goods across borders.
It should create opportunities for enterprises to grow beyond their national boundaries and build regional brands that compete confidently in international markets.
The challenge, therefore, is to ensure that regional integration does not stop at opening markets, but advances towards building the productive capacity required to serve them.
Zimbabwe is well positioned to contribute to this conversation. Under the Second Republic, the country has continued to pursue industrialisation, investment promotion, infrastructure development and value addition as key pillars of economic transformation.
Hosting the summit provides an opportunity to connect these national priorities with the wider ambitions of COMESA, demonstrating how domestic production can become part of a broader regional economic ecosystem.
The opportunity is especially clear in agriculture and agro-processing. COMESA countries possess considerable agricultural resources, but the economic benefits of these resources can be multiplied when production is linked to processing, packaging, storage, transport and distribution.
Instead of exporting commodities with limited processing, countries can develop industries that produce finished and semi-finished goods for regional markets.
Agricultural products can support food-processing businesses, while locally-produced raw materials can supply manufacturers of packaging, textiles, beverages and other consumer products.
This approach creates opportunities beyond the farm. It supports transport operators, packaging companies, engineers, retailers and small businesses, allowing economic activity to spread across communities and sectors.
Zimbabwe’s own industrialisation ambitions can benefit from stronger links between farmers and manufacturers, while regional cooperation can help businesses access a larger customer base. When producers have reliable markets beyond their borders, they gain greater incentives to expand output, improve quality and invest in modern equipment.
The same principle applies to mining. The continent’s mineral resources should serve as a foundation for industrial development, rather than merely supplying raw materials to industries elsewhere.
Where economically viable, regional partnerships can support mineral processing, manufacturing inputs, technology transfer and the development of industries that create more value before products leave African markets.
This is not an argument for every country to produce everything independently. Rather, it is a case for countries to identify complementary strengths and build regional value chains in which different economies contribute to a common productive outcome.
One country may supply raw materials, another may provide processing capacity, while another offers specialised manufacturing, logistics or access to wider markets.
Such cooperation can reduce duplication, expand economies of scale and make regional industries more competitive. The summit’s focus on green industrialisation adds another important dimension to this agenda.
Economic growth must increasingly be accompanied by efficient resource use, environmental responsibility and the creation of new industries that respond to emerging commercial opportunities.
The leather sector offers a practical example. Livestock resources can support much more than the sale of hides. With appropriate skills, investment, technology and market access, the sector can produce finished leather goods, footwear, accessories and other products with greater commercial value.
The agreement signed between ZimTrade and the Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute during the COMESA Green Industry Connect illustrates the potential of targeted cooperation to strengthen Zimbabwe’s leather value chain.
By supporting skills development, product innovation, enterprise modernisation and access to markets, such partnerships can help local businesses move towards higher-value production.
The wider lesson is that industrialisation does not always begin with massive factories. It can also grow through the modernisation of existing enterprises, the upgrading of production techniques and the creation of connections between small producers and larger markets.
Plastics recycling and electronic-waste recovery present similar opportunities.
Materials that would otherwise be discarded can become inputs for new products, supporting recycling enterprises, technical jobs and more efficient production systems.
With suitable investment and standards, circular industries can reduce waste while creating additional economic value.
These opportunities are particularly relevant to young people, women and small and medium-sized enterprises, which need practical routes into productive economic activity.
Regional markets can offer these businesses room to grow, but only if they can access finance, appropriate technology, reliable information, skills and fair opportunities to compete.
Consequently, the success of COMESA’s industrialisation agenda should not be judged exclusively by major investment announcements.
It must also be measured by whether smaller businesses become suppliers to established industries, whether entrepreneurs secure new export markets and whether more people participate in productive economic activity.
For this to happen, Governments must continue addressing the practical barriers that make cross-border business expensive or unpredictable. Efficient border procedures, improved transport links, compatible standards, reliable energy supplies and accessible trade information are essential to ensuring that goods can move from producers to consumers without unnecessary costs and delays.
Regional integration becomes meaningful when a manufacturer can source inputs from a neighbouring country, process them locally and sell the finished product across the region under predictable trading conditions.
Investment is equally important. Investors need confidence that regional markets are accessible, regulations are transparent and infrastructure can support production. COMESA can strengthen that confidence by encouraging cooperation on investment frameworks, industrial standards, trade facilitation and regional infrastructure.
Zimbabwe’s hosting of the summit and its expected assumption of the COMESA chairmanship for 2026-2027 give the country an important platform to champion these practical priorities. President Mnangagwa’s emphasis on industrialisation, investment and economic empowerment provides a domestic policy framework that can be connected to the bloc’s wider development ambitions.
The task ahead is to translate regional commitments into sustained cooperation between governments, businesses, financial institutions and development partners. Summit resolutions should support projects, partnerships and measurable outcomes that continue long after visiting delegations have returned home.
Ultimately, Africa does not lack markets, natural resources or entrepreneurial potential.
The greater challenge is connecting these strengths to productive capacity, technology, investment and efficient regional trade.
Harare must, therefore, be remembered not merely as the venue of another important regional gathering, but as a place where a stronger commitment was made to building an Africa that produces more of what it consumes, adds value to what it exports and creates opportunities through its own industries.
One market can create demand. One future can inspire collective ambition. But it is sustained production, value addition and cooperation that will turn that ambition into shared prosperity across COMESA.
