Lloyd Makonya
Correspondent
MANICALAND has emerged as Zimbabwe’s most competitive province, recording an overall score of 62,5 out of 100 in the 2025 National Competitiveness Baseline Survey (NCBS), a finding that offers an encouraging starting point as the country enters a critical phase of its journey towards becoming an empowered and prosperous upper-middle-income society by 2030.
The survey places Manicaland ahead of Midlands, which scored 61,1 and Mashonaland West at 60.
But beyond the provincial rankings, the findings provide a broader picture of the conditions under which Zimbabwean businesses operate, innovate, attract investment and create employment.
The survey conducted by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) in collaboration with the National Competitiveness Commission (NCC) establishes Zimbabwe’s first domesticated competitiveness baseline indicators. The report which was signed off by ZimStat Director-General, Ms Tafadzwa Bandama and NCC Acting Executive Director, Mr Brighton Shayanewako, comes at an important moment in the country’s development trajectory, as Zimbabwe moves from the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), covering 2021 – 2025, into NDS2 for the 2026–2030 period.
The transition raises a fundamental question of how can the country translate the foundations established under the first strategy into faster, more inclusive and sustainable economic transformation during the final stretch towards Vision 2030.
It is in this context that the NCBS assumes particular importance. Rather than relying exclusively on broad economic indicators, it examines the business environment through four dimensions of innovativeness, inclusiveness, sustainability and resilience.
The framework draws on the World Economic Forum’s Future of Growth Framework, adapting its broad approach to Zimbabwe’s own economic circumstances and development priorities. This process of domestication is significant because international competitiveness assessments, while useful for comparison, may not capture all the structural, institutional and sector-specific conditions that influence businesses locally.
Since 2022, the National Competitiveness Commission has served as Zimbabwe’s national focal point for the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey.
The NCBS builds on that experience by developing a locally grounded database of indicators that can be used to track competitiveness over time, identify constraints and assess the impact of domestic reforms.
In practical terms, the survey asks business executives to assess conditions affecting enterprise performance. Their responses are converted into scores on a common scale of zero to 100. Indicator scores are aggregated into the four pillars, which are then equally weighted to produce an overall competitiveness score. The same approach is applied across provinces and economic sectors, allowing comparisons to be made within the country.
The survey was designed to cover all ten provinces and establishments of different sizes. Of the 1 641 establishments selected, 1 107 were successfully interviewed, representing a response rate of 67,5 percent. The results should therefore be understood as a baseline of business perceptions rather than a direct measurement of provincial economic output.
Their value lies in establishing a consistent starting point against which future changes can be assessed and policy interventions evaluated.
Nationally, Zimbabwe recorded an overall competitiveness score of 58,5. Inclusiveness was the strongest pillar at 61,5, followed by innovativeness at 59,1, resilience at 57,4 and sustainability at 56.
The results indicate areas of progress, but also reveal structural constraints that could undermine the country’s ambitions if left unaddressed.
Manicaland’s performance is particularly notable because the province led nationally in three of the four pillars. It scored 62,3 in innovativeness, 65,7 in inclusiveness and 61,4 in sustainability. Its resilience score of 60,7 placed it a close second to Midlands, which recorded 60,8.
The innovation results point to a potentially valuable foundation for economic development.
Manicaland recorded scores of 85,6 for tertiary education meeting industry needs and 79,0 for vocational education. It also performed positively on mathematics and science skills, at 76,2, and digital and technology skills, at 73,6.
For a province with opportunities in agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and cross-border trade, the connection between education and industry is important. Relevant skills can improve production methods, support agro-processing, strengthen service delivery and enable businesses to use digital technologies to reach new markets.
However, skills development must be matched by opportunities for their application. Training alone cannot guarantee enterprise growth where businesses face unreliable electricity, limited access to finance or costly transport. The challenge is to connect the province’s human-capital strengths to productive investment, innovation and value addition.
Manicaland’s leading inclusiveness score also offers grounds for optimism. The survey recorded 82,5 for merit-based appointments to senior management and 83,3 for leadership opportunities for women. An open culture of workplace collaboration scored 78.
Such indicators suggest that fairer and more participatory working environments can form part of a competitive economy. Yet inclusiveness must extend beyond workplace practices to the ability of young people, women-owned enterprises, people with disabilities and small businesses to access finance, markets, infrastructure and opportunities for growth.
The survey also identifies weaknesses that could constrain the province’s progress.
Electricity supply reliability scored only 31,1, while water supply reliability recorded 46,7.
Road infrastructure quality stood at 45,8.
These are not merely infrastructure statistics. They reflect conditions that can determine whether a business operates profitably, expands production or decides against investing. Unreliable power can interrupt manufacturing and services, water shortages can affect agriculture and tourism, while poor roads raise the cost of transporting goods and accessing markets.
For Manicaland, whose economic potential includes agricultural production, agro-processing, tourism and cross-border commerce, these constraints deserve urgent attention. Producers need dependable infrastructure to move goods and meet delivery schedules, while tourism operators require reliable utilities and accessible destinations.
Access to finance presents another challenge. Manicaland scored 34,7 on equity funding for start-ups, highlighting a potential barrier for entrepreneurs seeking to turn ideas into viable enterprises. Although access to finance for business operations scored 61,4, the findings underline the difference between meeting day-to-day financial needs and obtaining investment capital to establish or expand a business.
The survey also raises questions about market competition and the business environment.
Manicaland recorded scores of 38,8 for competition in real estate, 41,7 for professional legal services and 43,1 for technology support and design services. Openness to foreign direct investment regulation scored 49,2.
These findings point to areas where further investigation and reform may be needed. Competitive markets, accessible professional services and predictable regulation can reduce barriers to enterprise development and make it easier for investors to identify and pursue opportunities.
Sustainability is another area in which Manicaland performed strongly overall, but the results reveal a vulnerability that deserves attention. The province scored 61,4 in the sustainability pillar, leading nationally, yet the perceived cost imposed on businesses by climate change was only 33,7.
This matters for a province whose agricultural activities and rural livelihoods are closely connected to natural resources. Climate resilience should increasingly inform investment decisions, water management, production systems and infrastructure planning. Environmental responsibility is not separate from competitiveness, it can help protect productive capacity against future shocks.
The province’s resilience results also highlight the importance of institutional quality. Scores for corruption costs imposed on businesses, judicial impartiality and the incidence of crime and violence were 40,8, 40,9 and 37,1 respectively. These indicators require careful interpretation within the survey’s measurement framework, but they identify areas of concern in the wider business environment.
Enterprises need confidence that regulations will be applied fairly, contracts respected and disputes resolved impartially. Investment in infrastructure and skills will deliver less than its full potential if businesses simultaneously face institutional uncertainty, crime or the costs associated with corrupt practices.
For this reason, the competitiveness agenda is closely connected to NDS2’s wider development objectives. A more productive and diversified economy requires physical infrastructure, but it also depends on capable institutions, fair competition, reliable services and policies that encourage investment. Provincial authorities, local authorities, business organisations, training institutions and financial service providers need to use the findings to identify priorities and translate them into measurable improvements.
At the national level, the survey offers a tool for monitoring whether reforms are improving the conditions under which Zimbabwean enterprises operate. By establishing a baseline that can be updated over time, it creates an opportunity to move beyond broad policy commitments and examine whether implementation is producing meaningful change.
That is particularly important as Zimbabwe pursues Vision 2030. The ambition of becoming an upper-middle-income economy must be reflected not merely in headline economic performance, but in stronger productive industries, more competitive enterprises, decent employment, resilient communities and wider access to economic opportunity.
Manicaland’s score of 62,5 suggests that the province has strengths on which to build.
Its challenge is to convert those strengths into sustainable business growth while addressing the infrastructure, financing and institutional weaknesses identified by the survey.
Manicaland tops competitiveness rankings
