PRIORITIES FOR 2019-2022

THE Kingdom of Eswatini Strategic Road Map 2019 - 2022 has identified five sectors of the economy (education and ICT, mining and energy, agriculture, manufacturing and agro-processing, and tourism) that can potentially deliver high impact on; gross domestic product (GDP) growth; job creation, and revenue mobilisation.

The country is in dire need of growth of new sectors within the private sector that can produce new goods and services and offer employment opportunities to the multitudes of unemployed emaSwati. With the growth of new industries, entrepreneurs too also get a chance to hone their business concepts to take advantage of the business opportunities that come with new developments. At the same time, all this new growth means more money trickling into the G-wallet.

So what should government really prioritise in these five sectors of the economy? In the education sector, government needs to make sure that we have a world class education system that encourages learners to think for themselves and innovate instead of becoming robots that are only good for regurgitating information. This will enable the pupils and students who go through the system to graduate with solid ideas on what new business ventures they can add to the economy and increase the private sector. The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) should note that the private sector is not really hiring anymore. Really, we need the education system to churn out job creators rather than job seekers and for the longest time now, the MoET has become a vessel for absorbing failed career choices among its graduates. Therefore, the MoET should allocate more of its budget on school infrastructure and training material rather than a vehicle to bloat up the civil service wage bill.

For the agriculture sector, the priority is very simple; the country needs to be self-sufficient when it comes to food. Eswatini should be able to put food on our tables without huge reliance on food imports from South Africa. If government can make the agriculture sector lucrative for our own farmers, then our GDP as well as the agriculture sector can begin to grow. When government deliberates on the Ease of Doing Business, it should make it a point to remember that this concept also applies to the agriculture sector. The truth is, the National Agricultural Marketing Board is making it really hard for small farmers to really make sustainable business ventures out of farming.

Then there is manufacturing and agro-processing. Well, without fixing market failure within the agriculture sector, there is very limited agro-processing that will take place in Eswatini. Agriculture provides the raw materials for agro-processing, which then feeds into manufacturing of finished food products that emaSwati buy in the giant supermarkets all over the country. With the abundance of arable land across the country, agriculture and its allied industries can offer a lot of employment opportunities for emaSwati, develop new industries, and feed the nation with less dependence on South Africa.

Mining and energy is a different ball game. The country has had bad experiences within the mining industry where our natural resources end up benefiting a few at a huge environmental, social, and economic cost to Eswatini. Does someone have an idea on what is going on at Maloma Colliery? We do not even have a real road to Maloma. Remember the Ngwenya Iron Mine? During the Salgaocar time, no real development happened in the Ngwenya area and surroundings.
These investors were only good for colouring Ngwenya highway red and causing road accident havoc along Malagwane Hill. Yes, we want to be an export oriented economy but government should also use our mineral resources to lure investors to set-up shop for manufacturing right here in Eswatini. Here also is the energy issue.

The problem is that we have the Eswatini Electricity Company calling all the shots as it enjoys its monopoly and so government needs to apply some of the concepts on the Ease of Doing Business in this sector as well. Eswatini does not really have to suffer due to high electricity tariffs just because it is easy to import power from South Africa.

Finally, there is the tourism sector. There is a lot of money to be made in this sector by anyone who cares to take advantage of business opportunities targeted at our visitors. The reality is that Eswatini is a beautiful small country, rich in culture and tradition that has huge potential to lure people from afar to flock our borders. With all the tourist destinations that we have on offer, government has to make sure that the fruits of the tourism industry serve emaSwati and not have giant corporations pausing as non-government organisation milking the profits of this sector. Open your eyes; this is the biggest problem facing the tourism sector.

Government should open its eyes to the true problems facing these sectors in order to make the real changes the country desperately needs. The first priority under each of these five sectors should be to increase the ease of doing business so that the private sector can invest and create the much needed jobs, and hopefully, government will ease up on individual taxpayers as the major source of government revenue.

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