Farai Mabeza
Zimbabwe must move with greater urgency to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), ZimTrade chief executive Allan Majuru has said, warning that global markets will not wait for the country to complete its preparations.
Majuru was speaking at the Zimbabwe Industrialisation Conference and Expo (ZICE) 2026, where he also called for the creation of a one-stop online platform for export documentation to reduce delays and allow businesses to focus on production and manufacturing.
“We have the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is coming. I know we are doing a lot of preparations,” Majuru said.
“But unfortunately, the world will not wait for us. It will keep on moving. So we need to move fast … so that things move.”
The AfCFTA, which seeks to create a single African market for goods and services, is expected to open greater opportunities for Zimbabwean producers. However, Majuru said the country needed to ensure that its systems and processes were ready to support businesses seeking to export into regional and continental markets.
He singled out the cumbersome process of obtaining export documentation, which often requires companies to move from one government office to another.
“We move from one office to another, trying to ensure that we get the necessary export documentation. So if you can have it online, it also goes hand-in-hand,” he said.
Majuru said Zimbabwe needed a single electronic window that would serve as a one-stop shop for export-related documentation.
“When export documentation is delayed, the person who comes to you is either the CEO or the executive. People are spending more time looking for documents rather than concentrating on manufacturing and production,” he said.
His remarks come as Zimbabwe seeks to accelerate industrialisation through greater participation in regional and global value chains.
The push for faster implementation of digital trade facilitation measures is likely to become increasingly important as Zimbabwean companies compete for opportunities created by the AfCFTA and other preferential trade arrangements.
