By Sizwe Dlamini
The Minister of Commerce Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo has highlighted the need for Emaswati to actively participate in the manufacturing industry and bemoaned the absence of local entrepreneurs in the space.
Khumalo was speaking at the launch of the 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, held last week at the Royal Villas.
Khumalo said that local entrepreneurs should try to focus on the manufacturing industry as it was an untapped sector that could stimulate economic growth immensely in the kingdom.
“As Emaswati we should try to focus on the manufacturing industry as an economy because as you can see jobs are not being created at the pace at which we churn out graduates from our various educational institutions, hence this leads to untold frustration as unemployment is very high,” he said.
Khumalo highlighted that the government in conjunction with entrepreneurs should come up with innovative ways of promoting manufacturing in the kingdom.
“Our role as government is to create an environment that will make it easy for local, entrepreneurs to establish themselves and we have to safeguard the interests of local entrepreneurs by welcoming the introduction of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act. With this framework in place government can see how we can protect a local entrepreneur who wants to produce textiles locally, for example”.
Khumalo stated that companies that operate in the manufacturing space are thriving.
“Let us use an example of textiles – people that produce textiles in the kingdom are making a killing. I have seen some of their numbers, and they often tell me that they don’t make any money, but in reality, they are making a lot of money, and that industry is very lucrative for them. However, there is a notable absence of EmaSwati-owned textile manufacturing companies. EmaSwati should be the ones active in this space and benefiting from this industry”.
The minister encouraged entrepreneurs to envision Eswatini as a production hub capable of exporting goods globally and encouraged local entrepreneurs to build business relationships abroad.
“I want to say to local entrepreneurs, think big. Let’s think about using Eswatini as a production centre for the continent. I used to work for CONCO which was producing in Eswatini and supplying products across the continent. It is not really that tough, but we need to get to a point where we forge external partnerships. The reality is that Eswatini is a small economy, so we must always think externally.”