Zimbabwe’s textile industry: The Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (ZCMA) plans to employ 35,000 people in the next five years, largely because of the sector’s revival and promotion of value addition. The country’s clothing and textile industry collapsed primarily due to competition from imported goods, obsolete machinery and lack of working capital to upgrade.
Compared to 6,700 at present, the nation’s clothing and textile industry used to employ over 35 000 around two decades back.
Briefing deputy minister for industry and commerce Raj Modi in Bulawayo recently, ZCMA chairman Jeremy Youmans said tackling the problem of raw materials would take time and nobody is going to invest in the textile industry until the country has got a ready market to deliver, according to a Zimbabwean newspaper report.
Recently €1.2 million was made available out of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa for the cotton chain and the money just got tied up in bureaucracy, he lamented.
