Story by Mercy Bofu
Government is leaving no stone unturned in the implementation of the National Development Strategy One to ensure inclusive development in line with the objectives of Vision 2030.
Moving with the Second Republic’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is engaging communities and at the same time updating them on progress made in the implementation of the National Development Strategy 1.
The implementation of devolution programmes was topical during an engagement with the Chivi community this Tuesday.
This comes at a time road, schools and clinics are being constructed around the country using devolution funds.
“We are excited by the developments we are witnessing in our communities, schools are being built and roads constructed. However, we are recommending timely disbursement of Devolution funds,” said a resident.
“Here in rural communities we are having challenges with some shops refusing to trade in local currency, again exchange rate is not stable we would want the government to deal with people or businesses engaging in the parallel markets,” added another resident.
The Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Honourable Clemence Chiduwa gave an insight into measures taken by the government to ensure development.
Honorable Chiduwa said, “We are moving around engaging communities on the implementation of National Development Strategy 1. Here in Chivi, it was an interactive session. We updated that more than 18 billion dollars under devolution were released in the first quarter and on issues around the black market the government has taken a tough stance that we are going blacklist all companies and its subsidiaries involved in parallel market dealings.”
Under NDS 1 Masvingo is earmarked for agricultural development given the abundant water resources in the province.
“The government is working on a number of dams in Masvingo including Tende Runde such that we establish irrigation schemes. We are targeting more than 70 000 hectares of land to be put under irrigation,” asserted Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Honorable Ezra Chadzamira.
Projects mentioned include Bwanya Clinic, Tugwi Mukosi Secondary, Chombwe pipe water scheme, Rubweruchena Secondary and Tende Runde Dam to mention a few.
Cabinet has also received and adopted the National Development Strategy 1 performance report for the fourth quarter of 2022, which indicated that the Government exceeded its set economic development targets.