Govt encouraged to adopt ‘youthnomics concept’
THE Government has been encouraged to adopt the “youthnomics” concept in order for the mining sector to thrive.
Speaking during the Young Miners Investment Indaba on Friday in Harare, entrepreneur and group chief executive officer of Cernic Finance Group Dr Chamu Chiwanza said ways of doing business have changed and the youths were becoming the biggest contributors to the economy.
“Economics of business has changed, the dynamics of things have changed, there is Covid-19 pandemic among other things, the way that people are doing business is completely different from last year as everything has changed.
“In Zimbabwe, in my own way of doing business there is what we call youthnomics, the study of economics better understood by the youths, youths plus economics you come up with youthnomics. It’s the new model of doing business particularly in Africa and should be adopted by the Government,” said Dr Chiwanza.
THE Government has capped free sugar imports under the Open General Import Licence in a bid to encourage consumption of the locally produced commodity.
In the recently announced 2021 National Budget Statement, Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube said sugar has been exempted from the Open General Import Licence.
“In order to encourage consumption of locally produced sugar, the commodity is excluded from importation under the Open General Import Licence. The current price of locally produced sugar, which is 50 percent above the landed price, has rendered exports of products such as confectioneries and beverages, uncompetitive,” he said.
Prof Ncube also noted that in order to
He added that inclusion and engagement with the youths was key for a thriving economy.
“I call upon Government to take the lead very seriously. If that is properly pursued deliveries (gold) to Fidelity Printers and Fineries will increase. Do not underestimate and ignore the youths thinking that they do not know business.
“They can make huge sums of money, the only challenge they face is support and getting licenses for them is difficult because they are viewed as not structured,” he said.
Dr Chiwanza added that young miners were more critical to the economy as the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development could collect more money for tax from the young miners than from the big mines. He said this was so because there are a lot of young miners who are uncounted for and who do not even know how to pay tax. He also noted that Zimbabwe was a youthful nation according to the United Nations.
With 68 percent of the population in Zimbabwe being youths and 62 percent of those below the age of 25. He said most of them are unemployed and Government must focus more on them because they are the future and enhance exports of goods where sugar is the main ingredient, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce will issue import licences, in line with exports realised in the past two years.
Prof Ncube also added that manufacturers will then be able to take advantage of the Inward Processing Rebate and the Duty Draw Back schemes availed by the Government to facilitate duty free importation of raw materials.
Meanwhile, as revenue enhancing measures, a cannabis levy has been set.
“Cannabis (mbanje/imbanje) production has immense potential to generate export receipts and tax revenues. The potential value of cannabis exports for medicinal purposes is estimated at about US$1.25 billion for the year 2021,” he said.
This comes after it has been noticed that there are immense benefits that can accrue to the country from cannabis exports, Government promulgated legislation to govern the production, procurement, distribution, the ones running most of the things.
He added: “Institutional integrity to companies by employing older people no longer works as they do not have much followers on social media platforms. The biggest companies in the world that is tech companies like Facebook who are its biggest users, it’s the youths. Instagram the biggest users as well are the youths, Amazon who buy more things online your grandmother or yourself who has more capacity of buying anything online it’s the youths, Netflix who watches movies online it’s the youths. As Young Miners Foundation you are very key.”
Dr Chiwanza said if any business model structure does not focus on the youths in five years down the line they are likely to shut down. He encouraged them to change their focus to cater for the youths who are ultimately the end users of minerals such as gold, platinum, diamonds and chrome.
He encouraged young miners not to just focus on the price of their minerals but to venture into value chain addition to reap the benefits of their hard work.
“Do not just focus on the price this is why we do not produce multi millionaires in Zimbabwe possession, sale, provision and transportation of the crop.
Prof Ncube said: “I, therefore, propose to introduce a Cannabis Levy, chargeable on the value of exports, at the following varied rates of tax that correspond to the level of processing.”
He said 10 percent will be charged on the export sales value of finished packaged medicinal cannabis oils that are ready for resale; 15 percent on the export sales values of bulk extracted medicinal cannabis oils that require further processing and/ or packaging; and 20 percent on the export sales value of dried medicinal cannabis flowers.
Government legalised the production of cannabis (mbanje or dagga) for medicinal or scientific purposes in 2019. This was under the Statutory Instrument 62 of 2018 (Dangerous Drugs-Production of Cannabis for Medicinal and Scientific Use Regulations) because you focus on that moment that when I sell my gold stone I have made money. I want you to focus on ultimately who is the final user of gold, look and focus there because ultimately that is where the money is. For most of the people it’s used for ultimate production of watches, jewellery, ornaments, trophies, where you find all other things,” he said.
Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation director for youth development, Mr Elias Murinda said the ministry was working on creating an enabling environment for all youths with those in mining also included.
“We have been going through the process of reviewing the youth policy whose new focus and thrust is now youth empowerment, the policy vision will be an empowered and thriving by 2030 and the goal is an actively involved youths in national development,” said Mr Murinda.
He said they were also working on broadbased economic empowerment programmes for youths in the mining sector such as the establishment of fully equipped demonstration and common facility centres with gold and chrome extraction equipment.
Mr Murinda also encouraged young miners to consider other employment opportunities that exist in the related professional trades such as geologists, metallurgists, technicians, accountants, supply of goods and services such as catering, personal protective clothing and financial services along the mining value chain.
Fidelity Printers and Refineries mining investment fund advisor, Mr William Gambiza said from the national budget small-scale miners which a lot of the young miners dominated were to start receiving their retention on the spot.
“In the budget statement that was published it really pronounced that Fidelity Printers and Refineries starting this Friday has committed itself in reducing that turnaround time to one week for the large scale and also to do spot payment to the small scale from the five days it used to take,” said Mr Gambiza.
He added that the gold sector requires US$5 billion in the next five years mainly to capacitate the sector and the investment was required for the sector to achieve the much anticipated $4 billion gold industry by 2030. Exportation and resuscitation of old dormant mines were some of the other key measures for the sector to grow.
Govt puts cap on sugar imports