Harare – Data from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe show that the country’s exporters have purloined a total of $292.4 million during the first half of the year from incentives unveiled by the central bank as it accelerates efforts of generating the much-needed foreign currency and boost local production.

In May 2016, the Bank said Zimbabwe’s widening trade deficit of around US$2.5 billion, requires a substantial policy reset to promote exports in view of lack of competitiveness of Zimbabwean exports due to global shocks that include the strong US Dollar, sharp decline in commodity prices and tighter global financial conditions.

RBZ added that there was need to bring sanity in the management of foreign exchange in order to promote local production that is necessary to reduce import dependence.

It is against this background that the Bank introduced the performance related export incentive/bonus scheme awarded to exporters of goods and services to address the challenges of low productivity and promote exports.

As an incentive for exporters, the Reserve Bank said it will pay up to five percent 5 percent incentive to exporters of goods and services.

RBZ also introduced a new 12.5 percent incentive for industrial exports to expand the country’s foreign currency earnings base.

During the period under review gold producers were the biggest beneficiaries of the incentives on the back of a rise in exports, with producers getting $139.5 million from the incentives.

The rise in the production of the yellow metal has seen producers getting US$139.5 million from the incentives.

Tobacco growers pocketed a total of US$87.5 million from the incentives  while Diaspora remittances which are also playing a critical role in capital inflows have also benefitted from the incentives to the tune of US$69 million.

During the first half of this year, Zimbabwe’s exports reached US$2.1 billion compared to US$1.6 billion during the same period last year, according to the central bank statistics.

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