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(NEWZIMBABWE) Poor roads harming Zimbabwe economy: Nkosana Moyo

Poor roads harming Zimbabwe economy: Nkosana Moyo
by Staff Reporter
27/07/2010 00:00:00

POOR infrastructure maintenance is costing Zimbabwe’s economy millions of dollars annually, the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the African Development Bank Nkosana Moyo has told a conference of Zimbabwean engineers in London.

“One of the problems in Africa is that we like to build new things, but we are not good at looking at those that we already have, and the costs are phenomenal,” Moyo, Zimbabwe’s former Industry and Trade Minister, said last Friday.

“Roughly for every dollar spent on maintenance, you save the economy $4 from the statistics that we have. That’s not even talking about what you allow the economy to create in terms of growth.”

Moyo said Zimbabwe’s pothole-riddled roads were costing motorists millions of dollars in repairs every year – money which could have been spent on the economy.

“The maintenance of vehicles in Zimbabwe which is a direct result of bad roads is a huge cost to the economy. Every time a consumer has to spend money that way, the demand side, in terms of stimulation of the economy, is robbed of purchasing power,” the economist told a Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers (UK Branch)-organised conference on infrastructure development and investment.

He added: “All economies grow because of the consumption that is there either globally or in the country, therefore it is important to understand that the facilitation for consumption is the driver of an economy.

“If the money that could be spent through demanding consumption has to be spent on replacing a tyre and things like this, you are actually depriving the economy of growth potential.”

Labels: NKOSANA MOYO, ROADS

posted by MrK @ 3:05 PM