Business leaders are pushing the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to prioritise exporters in the allocation of foreign currency.
This emerged at the recent Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) pre-National Budget consultation meeting held in the capital.
Currently exporters retain only 60% of their export earnings.
They are forced to surrender 40% of their earnings to the RBZ, which pays the exporters Zimbabwe dollar equivalent.
“…Everyone who is exporting should be prioritised on the auction system so that we keep on bringing in more foreign currency to be allocated to all those other businesses that don’t bring in foreign currency,” Jeffrey Mutinhiri, the managing director of Throttle Clothing said.
He added: “So why are we not feeding this cow (exporting companies) which is giving us milk? So the (auction) should be given priority to get foreign currency. However what we see at the auction is that we just queuing together whether you export or you don’t.
ZNCC Mashonaland Region vice president, Josephine Takundwa, weighed in saying: “The authorities should look at maybe segmenting the exporters. There should be leniency on first time exporters.
“From the competitiveness point of view our prices as exporters won’t be competitive as they are affected by this liquidation.
Our products tend to be more expensive compared to other players in the region who also export.’’
The ZNCC will be taking the pre national budget consultations across the country with the next stop in Bulawayo.