Mnangagwa worries over state of business as elections loom

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is "worried" about the state of business ahead of the elections, and has ordered Finance minister Mthuli Ncube to investigate the affected sectors.

Mnangagwa made the remarks at the inaugural ED Mnangagwa Business Summit that was held in Harare yesterday.

The event was organised by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers, which brought together members from each industry.

Most of the presentations made at the summit, namely tourism, infrastructure and the agro-industry, complained about failure to raise capital, distorted pricing and foreign currency unavailability.

"Ncube is here. I request you to obtain soft copies of each presenter so that we can re-examine these presentations in Cabinet," Mnangagwa said.

"Some are positive and some are worrying, but it is critically important to benefit from those in the private sector who we depend upon to implement our policies designed to grow our economy, modernise our economy and uplift our people from poverty into prosperity."

The meeting comes as the business community has complained about government's hawkish fiscal and monetary policies.

Such policies have caused capital to shrink, investors to spurn the country, the Zimbabwe dollar to rapidly lose value and fuelled inflation.

Presenting challenges on the infrastructure sector, Zimbabwe Construction Industry Association president Tsitsi Dzvukamanja said there was a need to resuscitate the sector for job creation and investment.

Infrastructure remains one of the lowest underfunded sectors in the country and requires billions of United States dollars to be resuscitated.