Bacossi scheme must benefit eligible people
THE distribution of Bacossi hampers in Harare and other major urban centres was seen as difficult from the beginning, since there is no equivalent of the close knit geographical communities with their hierarchy of traditional and elected leaders that works so well in rural areas. The main problems are to identify all who are eligible, ensure that all these people are registered, ensure that the ineligible are not registered and to ensure that everyone gets their fair share but that there is no duplication, no ghost recipients and generally no dishonesty.
What those responsible have done is to start a house-to-house registration exercise, which is better than nothing but is unlikely to be inclusive. It probably will prevent "ghost" recipients, duplicated recipients and other horrors, but is unlikely to include all who might be eligible.
What is needed is first a clear list of criteria of who is eligible and who is not. This has never, to our knowledge, been made public.
The house-to-house registration is fine, so far as it goes, but what happens if someone is out the day the registrars turn up, or if a lodger ensures that he can take the lot.
One of the high-priority groups are the old and infirm. Many of these live in low density suburbs. They might own property but thanks to the erosion or destruction of pensions by inflation many have little or no income and are living on handouts from their families.
We believe that in addition to the agents going house-to-house, or even instead of this exercise, there should be a desk at every municipal area office where people can apply to register.
There will, obviously, have to be some sort of simple check to avoid duplicate registrations. But if those responsible for the hampers start with the municipal rate rolls they will have a complete list of every single legal dwelling in Harare, or any other municipality.
Listing family heads with their national identity numbers will give, with the stand number, an easy way to check that there is, for most dwellings, just one hamper per dwelling, with no fictitious addresses, with no people living in two houses and with no one left out. Just putting all on a simple spread sheet will be adequate to run such checks, using data sort keys to find duplicate stand numbers and duplicate ID numbers.
Lodger families are an obvious complication, but they can be included in the system as a supplementary list. Again it will be simple to check the two lists to ensure that there are no duplicate ID numbers.
A lot of residents of old age homes, and pensioners struggling, can be identified by visiting the homes and by using the lists prepared by the municipality when it was considering offering reduced rents to people well over retirement age.
There is no need for the Bacossi distributors to start from scratch, a long process. There are many records already in existence, including rate and voters rolls. The door-to-door registration can be used as a check and as an audit.
To be fair the Bacossi hamper scheme must not only exclude the ineligible and the dishonest, which the door-to-door registration possible does well, but also include all who are eligible, which it certainly does not.
This is why we are suggesting that other systems are used as well to ensure that all who should benefit in fact do so, with the ineligible and dishonest still excluded.
Labels: BACOSSI GOODS
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Harare gets ready for Bacossi
Herald Reporter
GOVERNMENT has begun preparations for households in Harare to start buying basic goods under the
National Basic Commodities Supply Side Intervention programme launched recently by President Mugabe. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe officials were yesterday accrediting teams that will be tasked with conducting a survey of the number of households in the capital’s seven districts.
The teams consist of district administrators, University of Zimbabwe students, central bank and other Government officials. Accreditation of the survey teams was underway at Harare Polytechnic College yesterday. The more than 1 500 — who will conduct the surveys — underwent a two-day intensive training on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"We are still here and waiting for the IDs to be processed and once they are ready, we will be deployed to various areas in Harare and Ruwa where we will be operating from," said one of trainees who preferred anonymity.
Once deployed, the teams will first collect the names of households to benefit from the programme before a verification process.
Distribution points would then be set up in the districts once the verification process, which is expected to last a week, is complete.
A central bank official who declined to be named said the verification was meant to avoid duplication and guard against fraudsters.
In an interview, Harare Metropolitan Province Resident Minister Cde David Karimanzira said he had been given a briefing on the progress achieved to date.
He said the teams would be accompanied by police when they conduct their surveys.
"Some people might become suspicious but the police would be there to clarify the position," said Cde Karimanzira.
He said the distribution points would be set up at schools and community centres.
The Baccossi programme, which is being spearheaded by the central bank, seeks to, among other things, make sure that all Zimbabwean families have equal access to affordable basic commodities.
Most people are battling to get basic goods, which have been priced beyond their reach.
The food hampers cost $110 billion and include rice, sugar, toothpaste, cooking oil, sanitarywear, washing powder, flour and soap, among other basic commodities.
Labels: BACOSSI GOODS
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Statement on the Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention Program
Dr Gideon Gono's statement on the Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention Program (BACOSSI)
Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:00:00 +0000
THIS is the full text of a speech given by the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr. Gideon Gono at the annual Midlands Agricultural Show in Gweru on July 26, 2008.
“BASIC COMMODITIES AVAILABILITY AND SOCIAL SAFETY, THE CASE FOR ZIMBABWE”
A PRESENTATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE MIDLANDS PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURAL SHOW OPEN DAY
BY DR. G. GONO
GOVERNOR RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE
GWERU SHOW GROUNDS, GWERU
26 JULY 2008
SALUTATIONS
• The Honourable Governor of the Midlands Province, Comrade C.G. Msipa
• Leadership of the Midlands Show Society here present.
• Leadership of the Midlands Province Business and Farming communities here present.
• Fellow colleagues from the Financial Services Sector here present.
• Ladies and Gentlemen
• All protocols observed
INTRODUCTION
1. I feel greatly honoured and privileged to address this noble and certainly imperative gathering, where the whole Midlands Province converge to recognize and celebrate their economic productivity, as relates to the various economic sectors.
2. I am informed that since the early 1930s the Midlands Show Society has invested a lot of effort and hard work to make this show the most prestigious annual event in the Midlands Province and we commend the Show Society for that.
3. Again, your Governor is reliably informed that this year, more than 165 exhibitors are taking part in this grand event showcasing their businesses to at least 25 000 visitors who annually visit the show.
4. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is through these interactive get-togethers such as the one we have today that as stakeholders to this economy, we get time to reflect, exchange notes and cross-pollinate ideas in our collective endeavors to economically uplift our shared status as Zimbabwe.
5. In light of the above, your Governor is verily glad to be officiating at this gathering and certainly could not be happier being at any other place at this juncture.
6. My brief remarks today will focus on the current state of the economy, the attendant lack of basic commodities for the vast majority of our people and your Central Bank’s interventions in that regard.
7. Allow me, therefore ladies and gentlemen, to begin by sharing briefly on the current state of our economy.
THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ECONOMY
8. Currently, the state of our national economy is certainly far from what any Zimbabwean would want to see and endure.
9. As a nation, we find ourselves faced by the daunting task of healing an economy confronted by formidable challenges, largely accentuated by the multi-dimensional external factors.
10. From the external side, the economy is under pressure from the declared and undeclared sanctions on our various economic sectors especially with regard to access to foreign lines of credit.
11. In addition, Zimbabwe is not spared from the impacts of the rising international energy prices, especially petroleum.
12. Furthermore, internal but all the same exogenous factors such as droughts and floods have continued to militate against our national initiatives to rebuild our economy.
13. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to also point out that in as much as we are under intense pressure from the above external and exogenous factors, it would be naïve for us to forget that there are other factors affecting our economy that fall squarely within our reach of control as Zimbabweans.
14. Indeed, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is well within our collective capacity as Zimbabweans to realize that needlessly drawing spears against each other through internal squabbles only works to deepen the socio-economic challenges affecting our country.
15. It is another time tested truism, fellow Zimbabweans, that continued lack of unity and one common Vision as a People, at both political and commercial, as well as business levels coupled with high levels of indiscipline and bureaucratic inertia when it comes to implementing well-meaning Government programmes make it impossible for any society to achieve real progress.
16. Furthermore under utilization of our land and mineral resources as well as misaligned pricing and distribution policies and practices are other significant factors working to hold back our national economic progress.
17. All these factors are conspiring to cause an agonizing establishment of ridiculous price increases, shortages and consequently skewed distribution practices where basic goods are only available an affluent and connected few while the common man and woman in both urban and rural areas in particular are struggling to just survive.
BASIC COMMODITIES SUPPLY AND SOCIAL SECURITY.
18. In light of the above-described state of our economy and its attendant impacts on basic commodities supply, especially with regards to food items, allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen to highlight briefly on the critical subject of the importance of basic commodities availability in the face of the current global food security challenges.
19. Availability of food and other basic commodities have immensely transformed in level of importance over the recent past, not only in Zimbabwe but across the globe as food availability has become a major determinant for peace, national cohesion and security if food related disturbances that swept across the world a few months ago are anything to go by.
20. The sensitivity of basic commodities availability in society is not just a Zimbabwean issue, but a global matter generally imposing extreme implications and constraints on economic policy making and implementation in various countries of the world.
21. Allow me, therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen to pay special reference to Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) Mr. Ban Ki-moon’s statement to a Trade and Development Conference in Accra, Ghana, on the 20th of April 2008.
22. The UN Secretary General warned that the unavailability and unaffordability of food due to the global food crisis and the attendant surge in food prices was one of the greatest dangers that threatened socio-economic development.
23. To this effect, the UN Chief said: quote: “If not handled properly, this crisis could result in a cascade of others … and become a multidimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world”.
24. It is in view of the above that as Monetary Authorities, we have elected to be pragmatic as opposed to passively wait for disaster to strike in this nation.
25. In that spirit, we have, as is now characteristic of your Central Bank, dipped deep into our bag of innovations and came up with what we are convinced is a short to medium term response to the challenges confronting our nation in general and the vulnerable groups in particular.
OUR SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGES: THE BASIC COMMODITIES SUPPLY SIDE INTERVENTION (BACOSSI) FACILITY
26. The Basic Commodities Supply Side Interventions (BACOSSI) Facility is a multidimensional programme which seeks to ensure the availability and affordability of basic commodities to the vulnerable members of the Zimbabwean society.
27. The sole objective of this initiative, itself an intermediary intervention is, to alleviate the current shortages of basic commodities in the formal markets, especially in the rural areas.
28. As your Central Bank, we are therefore working hand and glove with the Ministry of
Industry and International Trade as well as other arms of Government to ensure that this initiative is effective as a market instrument to deal with the current market failure generated by rampant market indiscipline by way of profiteering and side marketing at the expense of the real consumer.
29. The facility is being implemented at broadly two levels namely supply side interventions at industry level as well as the distribution part at house hold level.
30. Having shared enough on basic commodities availability, allow me, fellow Zimbabweans to divert and touch briefly on another critical issue affecting the economy.
CURRENCY REFORMS
31. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me also take this opportunity to reassure the nation that this coming week, the Reserve Bank will be implementing far – reaching reforms to the Payment System whichreforms would address the current genuine constraints being faced by the public.
32. As your Central Bank, we are duty-bound to listen to all stakeholders submissions on how best to resolve known economic challenges and through this consultative process we then design appropriate responses.
33. I am, therefore, very confident that this coming week will bring about the much needed relief in our National Payment System.
CONCLUSION
34. In conclusion, allow me Ladies and Gentlemen to take this opportunity to, once again, congratulate the Patron of the Midlands Show Society, Governor Msipa, and the Executive Committee of the Midlands Show Society, the entire Farming and Business sectors in the Midlands province for contributing in your various but all important ways to make this amazing event a success.
35. In addition, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am heartened by the spirit of ownership and partnership revealed by some of the exhibitors to this year’s event whom I am told went out of their way to construct their own exhibition stands to make this show the accomplishment it is today.
36. In this regard, Ladies and Gentlemen, please help me recognize and salute the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Bata Shoe Company, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority ZIMRA, Dairiboard Zimbabwe and Sino-Zimbabwe Cement for having contributed to the success of this year’s show in their own special way.
37. Lastly, allow me, ladies and Gentlemen to reiterate that our current interventions in the productive sectors of our economy are not an end in themselves but rather come as transitory measures meant ensure continued national survival while at the same time gravitating the economy towards a self reproducing mode which would allow it to sustainably recovery and prosper.
38. As Monetary Authorities, therefore, we continue to call upon our leadership in Politics, Business, Labour and Civil Society to subvert their narrow individual and sectoral purviews to the global picture that benefits the country and the economy through coming together under a form of progressive understanding or social pact inspired by the collective goal of growing our National wealth in harmony.
39. With these few remarks, Ladies and Gentlemen,
40. I thank you.
Dr G Gono
Governor, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Gweru, 26 July 2008
Labels: BACOSSI GOODS, GIDEON GONO, SPEECHES, TRADE FAIRS, ZIMBABWE
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Economists commend local production of Bacossi goods
By Martin Kadzere
THE manufacturing of the Bacossi goods by local manufacturing firms will boost capacity utilisation while creating more jobs, economists have said. It is also an opportunity for "a good take off" by small to medium businesses involved in the production of raw materials and goods being distributed under the facility. But it should be "a short-term plan" which should not run for more than three months. A holistic approach was needed to create an enabling environment that allows companies to operate on their own.
Last week, President Mugabe launched phase one of Bacossi to the People where several basic goods, all imported, were distributed to rural communities. Imports were made with assistance from Russia, Ukraine and Namibia.
The Reserve Bank said it would procure raw materials and contract companies to produce basic goods on its behalf under toll manufacturing (1) arrangements. To cut the import costs, Reserve Bank governor Dr Gideon Gono said last week the central bank would enter into toll manufacturing with local firms.
"We want to engage companies to produce for the State and become viable in the process," said Dr Gono.
Economists said this would enhance capacity utilisation for most companies involved in manufacturing basic commodities while creating more jobs.
They said it would not make sense for the Reserve Bank to continue importing finished goods when it can actually import raw materials for processing here.
"Small to medium and large entities will benefit. Zimbabwean firms have the capacity and its good to capacitate them through toll manufacturing," said an analyst with a local bank.
Capacity utilisation for most companies has declined to levels below 20 percent as a result of foreign currency shortages to import raw materials while power outages, water cuts and price distortions have affected viability.
"I think it’s a good short-term measure. While it ensures increased availability of goods on the market at affordable prices, it also enhances capacity utilisation of companies . . . and not only that, but also creates more jobs," said one economist.
While the Reserve Bank would want the commodities to be affordable to many, as the Bacossi facility seeks to, fees earned from toll manufacturing should be sufficient to cover overheads incurred by firms.
Government, through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has disbursed funds under various facilities to capacitate business but the supply situation has actually worsened.
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1) toll manufacturing
Definition: Arrangement in which a firm (which has a specialized equipment) processes raw materials or semi-finished goods for another firm. Also called toll processing.
Labels: BACOSSI GOODS, GIDEON GONO, PRODUCTION, RBZ
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