Victoria Falls, (New Ziana)-Councils should urgently modernise and adopt private sector friendly reforms to prevent the bottlenecks in the local government systems from derailing the economic transformation that the country is implementing, a senior official has said.
Deputy Minister of Local Government and Public Works Benjamin Kabikira said this on Wednesday while addressing delegates at the ongoing Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce annual congress in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
He said while urban areas were the natural hubs of investment, they remained stifled by outdated regulations, adding that this may compromise the collective vision of transforming the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
“Our local authorities continue to face pressing challenges, from infrastructure that can no longer meet demand, to constrained revenue bases and regulatory bottlenecks that hinder the ease of doing business. These challenges, if left unchecked, compromise our collective vision of transforming Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income economy by 2030,” he said.
Kabikira implored councils to shift their mindsets and embrace billing and service tracking, as well as creating investor friendly local governance laws.
He also urged municipalities to think outside the box and adapt swiftly to changing economic dynamics.
“There is need to reduce red tape and bureaucracy that investors often face at the local level to obtain permits to access land and services. There is no transformation without efficiency. Let us be bold and innovative. Think beyond outdated practices. Create systems that support growth, not stifle it. The future of our economy depends not only on what happens at the top but what is done at the grassroots. Let us make our local authorities’ engines of progress, not barriers to it,” he said.
Kabikira also expressed concern over informal settlements and businesses which continue to sprout in many towns and cities without proper planning or taxation framework.
He said such informality not only reduces local revenue potential, but also complicates urban development. “Informality continues to elude proper planning and taxation. If we are to transform our urban and rural growth points into competitive economic centres, we must close the gap between planning and reality,” he said.
New Ziana
