Let’s turn policies into results

Chisumbanje Ethanol plant in Chipinge District.
Before the current sad developments, everyone would have agreed with me that the ethanol project had plainly become the incarnation of the aforementioned industrial policy. It unquestionably bore all the hallmarks of the policy document.
For the benefit of those who are not in the know of the industrial policy, the document seeks to transform Zimbabwe from being a mere producer of primary goods to a producer of value-added goods for both the domestic and export markets.
It also looks at creating additional employment in the manufacturing sector, increase capacity utilisation from 57 percent to 80 percent, re-quip and replace obsolete machinery and introduce new technologies for import substitution purposes, among other objectives.
All these objectives have been brought to life through the ethanol project. As a matter of fact, 4 500 direct and indirect jobs were created at the ethanol plant against a soaring unemployment rate that is stalking the country.
As envisioned in the policy document, the ethanol project had transformed Chisumbanje from being a mere producer of sugar cane into a sugar cane processing hub responsible for the production of ethanol, electricity and livestock feeds. This is a notable departure from the traditional practice of largely producing primary goods to feed processing factories domiciled in industrialised nations.
One could also notice that the project had seen the abandonment of obsolete Arda equipment and the consequent introduction of new ethanol production technology from Brazil. Such kind of technology transfer has positive ramifications to a country whose factories are crippled by obsolete machinery.
On capacity utilisation, the project had managed to resuscitate the moribund Arda Chisumbanje irrigation scheme into a viable sugar cane irrigation project that feed into a modern ethanol manufacturing plant. Undisputedly, this is a meteoric jump from zero to 100 percent capacity utilisation!
The bio-fuel produced at this plant has the potential to significantly reduce our import bill through the substitution of crude oil imports with the ethanol blend. Some experts contend that at full throttle the plant would produce ethanol that will substitute crude oil imports resulting in the country saving up to US$2 million in daily revenues.
With the nation grappling with unmitigated power shortages, the ethanol project has also established a power generating plant which has a measured potential to provide electricity to the whole of Manicaland. Presently the power plant was producing seven megawatts with the plant only requiring two megawatts with the remainder earmarked for the national grid.
Is this not a stepping stone to attaining the elusive goal of energy self sufficiency? It is noteworthy that other countries like Mauritius, which have well developed sugar industries, generate approximately 60 percent of their electricity from bagasse, a sugar cane waste. Above all, ethanol itself is an empirically clean fuel which is friendly to the environment and thus its use could accentuate our efforts to reduce carbon emissions and militate against global warming.
In addition, the project had also breathed life into the drought prone area of Chisumbanje, which annually receives inadequate rainfall and thus is victim to recurrent food shortages.
However, this could have been a thing of the past as the project had managed to develop irrigation plots for 1 200 families in Chief Garahwa’s area of Chinyamukwakwa. Other than ensuring an all year round food supply for the villagers, the irrigation project would also have gelled well into Government’s climate change and drought mitigation efforts of increasing land under irrigation.
There are also other downstream benefits that were beginning to take shape around the ethanol project with nine banks among other notable businesses having established shop at Checheche growth point.
With all these benefits in sight, it now begs the question why one would fold hands and watch such an essential project crumble? It is equally puzzling how the responsible ministries and stakeholders could watch 230 workers losing their jobs and the company grounding to a standstill.
Maybe there is a political twist to this but it is pivotal for Government to immediately intervene and work on relevant mechanisms to allow the project to rise to its feet again. Among other things, it is of national importance that relevant government ministries introduce pertinent interventions to make it mandatory for all motorists to use ethanol blended fuel.
At a time when investors are hard to come by, we cannot allow the US$600 million ethanol investment to go to waste. For once, let us transform our paper policies into tangible results. The Chisumbanje project will deliver results for our industrial policy.

l Tendai Moyo is a researcher and social commentator.