ZNCC Pleads For Policy Consistency

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) has implored the Government to ensure that there is policy consistency and the creation of an environment that is conducive to business.

Speaking to Business Times on the sidelines of the ZNCC business conference held in Harare last week, ZNCC president, Mike Kamungeremu, said:

They (Government) must simply create an enabling environment. In terms of service provision and infrastructure development, we want good roads, among many others. Those are the things that businesses want.

They want an enabling environment in which they will be able to do their business without fear and then they can sell their products and make money and pay taxes to the government at the end of the day.

He said the majority of businesses were also having trouble obtaining bank loans over the uncertainty of the tenure of the multicurrency system. Said Kamungeremu:

There was uncertainty about that. The (tenure) of the multicurrency was extended from 2025 to 2030 and this is a one key policy because you will find all banks not lending beyond 2025.

It was very difficult for businesses to get capital. Now that the extension has been granted, we have not received feedback as yet but we expect banks to start lending until that time.

Kamungeremu also pleaded with the Government to refrain from competing with businesses. He said:

Critically businesses want the government to be a regulator and they should play the role of regulator in everything that we are doing, not for them to also compete with business.

We gave an example of the insurance sector, where there are insurance companies that are making a lot of money from third-party insurance.

So if the government takes it away, it is more like they are being crowded out of the space so businesses feel that the government must not get in there.

Presenting the 2024 National Budget on 30 November, Finance, Economic Development, and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube said that the Government plans to take over the running of third-party motor vehicle insurance with effect from April 2024.

More: Pindula News