Business Reporter Zimbabwe’s assumption of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa chairmanship has been welcomed by business as an opportunity to turn regional trade agreements and digital reforms…
Business Reporter
Zimbabwe’s assumption of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa chairmanship has been welcomed by business as an opportunity to turn regional trade agreements and digital reforms into tangible gains for exporters, manufacturers and investors.
COMESA has 21 member countries namely Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt,Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The trading bloc covers a regional market of over 640 million people with a combined Gross Domestic Product of roughly US$1 trillion.
Zimbabwe will take over the rotational chairmanship from Kenya for the 2026–2027 term when it hosts the 25th COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit on October 22 at the new Parliament Building in Mt Hampden.
For local businesses, the significance of the chairmanship extends beyond hosting the regional summit, with traders keen to see Zimbabwe use its leadership position to accelerate implementation of measures that reduce the cost and complexity of cross-border commerce.
Zimbabwe is already implementing the COMESA electronic Certificate of Origin, which is designed to improve efficiency, reduce transaction costs and increase transparency in regional trade. The electronic system is currently being implemented by five COMESA member states, including Zimbabwe.
The country is among 15 member states implementing the COMESA Electronic Single Window, allowing traders to submit required documentation through a single digital platform rather than dealing with multiple government agencies.
Mr Tafadzwa Muchengeti, chief executive of Muchengeti Investments, said the initiatives could make a meaningful difference to businesses if Zimbabwe used its chairmanship to push for wider and faster adoption.
“Business is looking for practical outcomes from regional integration. The electronic Certificate of Origin and Single Window are exactly the type of reforms that can reduce delays, paperwork and transaction costs. Zimbabwe should use its chairmanship to make these systems work more seamlessly across borders,” he said.
Mr Muchengeti said greater harmonisation of customs procedures would be particularly important for companies seeking to expand exports into neighbouring markets.
“The opportunity is to make COMESA feel like a genuine common market for businessmen. If a manufacturer can produce in Zimbabwe and move goods through the region with fewer administrative obstacles, that changes the economics of investing in additional production capacity,” he said.
Development economist Dr Farai Chikowore said Zimbabwe could also use the chairmanship to advance the bloc’s investment agenda.
In April this year, COMESA member states validated a revised Common Investment Area Agreement, a framework aimed at strengthening intra-regional investment and attracting foreign direct investment.
“This is an important moment because investment and trade are closely connected. Businesses will invest where they can access markets and operate under predictable rules. Zimbabwe can use the chairmanship to push for faster progress on the regional investment framework,” Dr Chikowore said.
He said the focus should be on ensuring regional agreements translated into domestic and business-level benefits.
“Ratification and implementation are where the real economic value lies. The chairmanship allows Zimbabwe to bring member states together around practical timelines for implementation, rather than allowing good regional policies to remain largely on paper,” he said.
Industry also sees an opportunity to use the wider COMESA market to support manufacturing growth. Industrialist Gift Nyaradzo said local manufacturers needed a larger market to support investment and economies of scale.
“Zimbabwean industry cannot rely on the domestic market alone if we want significant expansion in manufacturing. COMESA provides an important regional market, and our chairmanship should be used to remove barriers that make it difficult for Zimbabwean products to compete across borders,” he said.
Mr Nyaradzo said digital trade facilitation could be particularly beneficial for manufacturers dealing with time-sensitive consignments and complex customs procedures.
He said Zimbabwe should also push for stronger regional value chains, allowing manufacturers to source inputs from neighbouring countries while supplying finished products into the wider market.
COMESA’s trade facilitation agenda already includes digital systems and measures aimed at reducing barriers to cross-border trade. The bloc’s Simplified Trade Regime is also operational in Zimbabwe and seven other member states, supporting small-scale cross-border traders.
For Zimbabwean business, therefore, the October summit represents more than a diplomatic event.
It offers the country an opportunity to put implementation, market access, investment and industrialisation at the centre of its COMESA agenda.
With Zimbabwe already participating in key digital trade instruments and the region working towards a more unified investment framework, business wants the country’s 2026–2027 chairmanship to turn those initiatives into faster movement of goods, lower trading costs and greater investment across the region.
The test of Zimbabwe’s leadership, business says, will ultimately be whether regional integration produces measurable benefits for the companies and traders that use the market every day
