Story by Tichaona Kurewa
The 40th Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe (CIFOZ) Annual Congress and General Meeting commenced in Victoria Falls this Thursday, with players contending that the Second Republic has opened vast opportunities for the industry.
The construction industry is key economic indicator, with players involved in construction of roads, dams, multi-storey buildings, schools, hospitals, hotels and houses.
CIFOZ acknowledged the task this Thursday on the side-lines of its annual congress in Victoria Falls indicating that the advent of the Second Republic took the sector of deep slumber through projects such as roads and dams.
“The first half of the year was characterised by massive uptake of civil engineering projects due to SADC summit preparation, how I wish we had a SADC summit every month. Let’s bear in mind that the construction industry was almost stagnant for about two decades, and we experienced a heavy loss of skilled manpower, loss of project opportunities and loss of local as well as external investments, but thanks to the second republic, the recovery path has come in a very big way with a very strong support for local contractors, and indeed our sector is now re-emerging as one of the key pillars of the economy,” said the president of CIFOZ Engineer Ephraim Gwindingwi.
Equipment suppliers testified to the brisk business due to a boom in the construction sector and a positive outlook.
Barloworld Zimbabwe’s country director, Mr Henry Madovi said, “The construction sector has picked up in a very tremendous way, if you look at the government emergency road rehabilitation programme; it has created a lot of opportunities in the construction sector where throughout the country every senior contractor has been given a portion of the road to work on it. This has also created opportunities for us well as suppliers of equipment. Generally there is a high volume of activity in the construction sector.”
CIFOZ also indicated that it is luring more women into the sector.
“We have a committee which stands in for women, which we call women in construction. This committee oversees the registered women in the sector we already have as members of CIFOZ .They have registered and we are in the process of registering more women owned companies which,” CIFOZ’s senior first vice president, Ms Elinah Shoko.
The construction sector employs more than 250 000 skilled and unskilled workers which reduces unemployment.
