Online Reporter
The country cannot afford to spend billions of dollars importing fertiliser while valuable State-owned machinery that could help reduce that dependence lies idle for want of comparatively modest funding.
Yet that is precisely the situation at Zimbabwe Phosphate Industries (ZimPhos), where a $1,7m granulator bought in 2021 remains uninstalled because the company says it cannot raise the additional $1,3mn needed to commission it.
A separate $1,1m fertiliser blending plant, with capacity to produce 200 000 tonnes annually, has been installed but remains constrained by a shortage of working capital.
These are not machines awaiting an uncertain market. The granulator was acquired to convert ZimPhos’ powdered Single Super Phosphate into granules acceptable to fertiliser blenders.
Its commissioning would also allow the company to manufacture finished nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) fertilisers, reducing reliance on imported inputs.
Instead, the granulator is, Parliament’s Industry and Commerce Committee established during a recent visit, deteriorating at the factory while the country continues to spend scarce foreign currency on fertiliser imports.
We spent more than $2bn on those imports between 2018 and 2024.
The contrast is clearly indefensible.
A country prepared to spend such sums abroad should be able to find the funding required to put existing domestic production equipment to work.
The Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), under which ZimPhos ultimately falls, must urgently work with Chemplex Corporation and the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe to resolve the funding bottlenecks.
The immediate priority should be to establish what is required to commission the granulator, restore the blending plant to productive use and provide a credible timetable for both.
There is no justification for allowing machinery bought with public resources to deteriorate until repairs become more expensive, replacement becomes necessary or technological advances render it obsolete.
Funding alone, however, will not solve ZimPhos’ wider problems.
The company also faces costly dependence on imported sulphuric acid, low capacity utilisation and unpaid customer debts. At the time of the parliamentary inquiry, it was owed $4,6m, including $2,3m by the City of Harare.
Treasury and public-sector debtors must help unlock working capital by addressing outstanding payments. MIF should meanwhile ensure that any additional support is tied to clear commissioning milestones and accountability for delivery.
The parliamentary committee has called for the granulator to be commissioned and outstanding refurbishment projects completed by December 31.
That deadline must be treated as a firm test of action, not another target allowed to slip.
Indeed, the country’s fertiliser import bill will not fall simply because we own production equipment. It will only fall when the machines at ZimPhos are fully installed, maintained and operated.
Mutapa and everyone concerned should therefore act now before two valuable state assets become monuments to avoidable delay.
