Story by Lisa Masuku-Kurira
INTERNATIONAL buyers from eight countries have expressed interest in forging partnerships with Zimbabwean companies in the agriculture and mining sectors.
With African nations on a drive to advance intra-continental trade by leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the country’s trade promotion body, ZimTrade, has brought together 15 buyers from eight countries for business-to-business networking sessions.
During an engagement in Bulawayo this Wednesday, the international buyers expressed interest in tapping into Zimbabwe’s agriculture and mining industries for investment opportunities.
“We are into agriculture, so we are looking to partner with Zimbabwean companies in advancing our agriculture sector,” a buyer from Angola, Mrs Mariano Sikila noted.
“We are into building and construction and we are looking for partnerships in product supply,” a Zambian buyer, Anesu Gumbie said.
“Zimbabwe has great technical skills, so we want to tap into knowledge in various fields. Zimbabweans are dotted all over the world, an indication of the skills that Zimbabwe are endowed with,” another buyer stated.
In an effort to help Zimbabwean businesses grow in Africa and beyond, ZimTrade has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank), particularly on the Africa Trade Gateway (ATG), a unified digital platform for promoting borderless trade among African nations.
“We partnered with Afreximbank and signed an MOU to produce our products and services through the ATG platform, which has verified buyers,” ZimTrade, Chief Executive Officer, Mr Allan Majuru said.
“This is an efficient digital platform for connecting African businesses to industrial parks. It is a digital trade ecosystem for powering African businesses to work together in making Africa’s trade more efficient,” Senior Manager Digital Business – Africa Trade Gateway Agency, Ms Annerose Ngemu noted.
The event facilitated a deeper understanding of the global market dynamics and connected Zimbabwean companies with buyers from across the globe.
