Online Reporter
Sikhulekelani Moyo, Zimpapers Business Hub
NATIONAL Handling Services (NHS) is on course to realise most of its performance targets for the year, after the organisation achieved the bulk of the objectives for the first half of the year.
The company revealed the progress achieved so far this year during the ongoing three-day midterm strategic review workshop in Bulawayo.
The event, which started yesterday and ends tomorrow, is meant to review the progress on the objectives set at the end of last year and come up with interventions to realise missed targets.
In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, NHS board chairperson, Advocate Godwin Nyengedza, said NHS had managed to achieve many of its targets for the half year. He said the organisation was facing a few challenges, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Adv Nyengedza said the mid-year strategic review was a critical moment and time to challenge assumptions, confront uncomfortable truths, and refine the roadmap for the months and years ahead.
He said this was more important, as the National Development Strategy (NDS1) runs its course at the end of this year.
“The midyear strategic review is a platform that we can then look at what we have done, where we were last year towards the end of the year when we sat and said this is what we want to do in 2025,” said Adv Nyengedza.
“Halfway through, we sit down and look again in terms of integrated results based management (IRBM) and our budgets, and we say have we achieved what we sought out to achieve, and if we haven’t, we recalibrate, what is that which went wrong and I am delighted to say not much has gone wrong.
“We have a few challenges here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary, and most of it has to do with our anticipation that we expected a certain number of landings and takeoffs in terms of the aircraft that we can handle in 2025, halfway through the year.”
He said certain airlines had taken decisions to, maybe hold back a little bit, due to microeconomic reasons, but apart from that, Adv Nyengedza said there were no serious challenges that the organisation faced during the period under review.
He said funding was one of the challenges NHS was facing which negatively impacted the implementation of some of the company’s ambitious projects such as in Walvis Bay Dry Port in Namibia. “We would want to have funding in terms of operationalising Zimbabwe’s dry pot,” said Adv Nyengedza.
“We have many other state enterprises that would want to come in under the able leadership of our Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Engineer Felix Mhona.
“We are quite hopeful on that side. We are also looking forward to partnering with the private sector, where there are quite a few good entities knocking at our door, and come this time next year, we will have managed to operationalise the Walvis Bay Dry Port.”
A dry port, sometimes referred to as an inland port, is an inland intermodal terminal, directly connected by road or rail to a seaport, operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations.
The Zimbabwe dry port at Walvis Bay was built on land straddling about 19 000 square metres, leased to the country by Namibia for 50 years.
At home, Adv Nyengedza said that NHS managed to offer good services to its customers, driving a fantastic turnaround, which saw the company getting positive feedback, with the organisation exceeding the industry average performance.
“We actually handle 90 percent of the airlines coming on the passenger side, and feedback in terms of turnaround time has been fantastic; we have managed to go beyond the industry standard, which is about 97 percent, we have scored 99 percent,” he said.
“Also, in terms of inadmissible passages, we managed to have very few ahead of industry standards, which is about three passengers per 100, we have only managed two passengers, out of the many that were carried through our airports come this time here to date so I am quite happy to announce that.
“So we are here, there is a huge buzz, everyone is all hands on deck, and we are happy as we push National Development Strategy 1 (NDS) as it comes to an end this year, we are happy to welcome NDS2.”
Adv Nyengedza said certain equipment was pending delivery, which will help the organisation to push its automation initiative as the world goes digital.
NHS is the mainstay of the ground-handling industry in Zimbabwe and specialises in passenger and aircraft handling, cargo handling and storage, ramp handling, lounge services, and shrink-wrapping services.
