ZITF – A Celebration Of COVID-19 Resilience

By Shingirai Vambe

The just-ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) bore testimony to local businesses’ resilience in the face of the COVID-19 global epidemic and potency to succeed on the international market, said organisers.

Returning after last year’s COVID-19 induced hiatus, ZITF chief executive officer Nick Ndebele told Post on Sunday that the trade fair was success with local companies, tourism players and service providers doing relatively well under the circumstances.

A few international companies were part of the exhibition which was dominated by government ministries and its parastatals.

Company and business representatives who spoke to this publication said the event was worth attending especially after they were forced to scale-down operations and cut back on their workforce at the back of lockdowns to contain the spread of the epidemic.

The hospitality industry however enjoyed rich-pickings with 100 percent occupancy with Bulawayo residents also cashing in on the influx of visitors and exhibitors by turning their homes into temporary lodges.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority are reportedly having second thoughts around holding Sanganai Hlanganani World Tourism Expo penciled for the end of October virtually.

Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube during the business conference said the tourism sector needed more support and his ministry was placing more focus on it.

“There was a huge drop of 75% in the tourism sector due to covid on arrivals in Africa and an exceptional performance in the construction industry with cement going on demand and becoming a scarce product,” said Ncube.

The International Trade Fair saw the birth and launch of the Airport Companies of Zimbabwe (ACZ), a private company unbundled from Civil Aviation of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) leaving it as strictly a regulatory authority with ACZ assuming the responsible of development and operations of airports.

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Some of the companies that participated in this year’s Trade Fair are BOC Gases, the Procurement Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ), Vumba Trust, Export Credit Guarantee Cooperation of Zimbabwe, Synergy Industry and Tatenda Mungofa of the Mureza Auto Company who came all the way from South Africa to show case his brand in his motherland.