guest column:Alfonce Mbizwo By any measure, Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector has fallen on hard times, decimated by the economic crises of the past two decades. The southern African country has gone from being among the most highly industrialised countries in sub-Saharan Africa at independence in 1980, in fact the second most developed after neighbouring South Africa, to undergoing a rapid decline and becoming among the poorest. Its earlier growth was underpinned by agriculture, mining and manufacturing sectors that have been most hit by poor government policy and political ineptitude. The manufacturing sector has almost disappeared and its potential has been largely ignored by the authorities. According to the National Development Strategy One (NDS1), which was launched in November last year, manufacturing contributed 25% to GDP in 1990, but that has now fallen to just 10,6%. The fall of the manufacturing sector has been partly blamed on the growing demand for cheaper finished products, from mostly South Africa and China. But mainly, the sector has suffered from governance failures that created political instability, hyperinflation at various times over the last two decades which also decimated consumer spending, an unfavourable tax regime, globalisation, obsolete machinery, rolling power cuts, lack or unavailability of adequate funding for retooling among others. With a shrinking domestic market and economic fundamentals that continue to worsen, there has been little incentive to revive local industries. But the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at the start of the year has changed the ball game, and it is time to rebuild the industrial base to exploit the new opportunities it presents. African countries began officially trading under the AfCFTA at the start of the new year after months of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The trade agreement presents a huge bloc that cut across Africa’s 55 economies with a collective 1,3 billion consumers and a combined US$3,4 trillion GDP. African leaders hope this would help usher in an era of development for a continent that has seen little of that in recent times. It took four years of talks for governments to agree to the AfCFTA which would be headquartered in Ghana. That agreement was eventually reached in March 2019. The free trade area, the largest since the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1994 is an attempt by African leaders to help unlock the continent’s economic potential by boosting intra-regional trade, strengthening supply chains and spreading expertise. It compels member States to remove tariffs from 90% of goods entering their markets from the region, allowing free access to commodities, goods and services across the continent. For Zimbabwe, AfCFTA should provide the opportunity to revive its rusting industries, create employment and allow the innovativeness of its population to lift the economy out of poverty. The above-mentioned NDS1 is targeting to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector to GDP from 10,