Government has completed building medical and welding gas plants at Feruka Oil Refinery in Mutare, in a development expected to reduce the country’s import bill and contribute to the transformation of Zimbabwe from a retail to productive economy.
The two plants, that were developed by Verify Engineering, an agency under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, are expected to be commissioned in the near future, marking a new epoch in the country’s development drive.
The development to the two plants at Feruka dovetails with the Second Republic’s thrust to transform Zimbabwe into an upper middle income economy by 2030, through use of science and technology to value add and beneficiate locally available resources.
Zimbabwe has been expending millions of dollars annually to import medical gas, which is manufactured, packaged, and intended for administration to patients in anesthesia, therapy, or diagnosis.
Welding gas is also a very important component in the metal fabrication industry and the country used to spend fortunes importing it.
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira said building of the two plants were completed last December.
The establishment of the plants is in line with Government’s import substitution thrust and will create a host of downstream benefits for the local economy.
“Building of the plants was completed in December last year at Feruka Oil Refinery in Mutare. The welding and medical gas plants were built next to one another and what is left now is to commission them, which will be done very soon,” said Prof Murwira.
“In terms of employment creation, I cannot give the exact number of jobs that will be created, but many jobs will be created in downstream industries that will benefit from the two plants.”
Prof Murwira said Government, through his Ministry would continue to sharpen its strategies in the use of science and technology and embark on several projects around the country that will bring solutions to some of Zimbabwe’s nagging challenges.
He said Verify Engineering was also working on a coal to fertiliser plant project in Mwasine, Chiredzi and coal to fuel project at Lusulu in Matabeleland North.
These will, however, take time to implement as there was need for proper planning and mobilisation of the requisite financial resources.
“These projects (coal to fertiliser and coal to fuel) are huge schemes being developed by Verify Engineering and will take time.”
“The coal to fertiliser project in Chiredzi is at a stage where we are trying to locate places where the plant and the depot will be situated.
This is a long term project. At Lusulu we got concessions for coal from Government, but again this is a very expensive project and we are aware that this will be another huge scheme that will also take time.”
As an agro-based economy Zimbabwe is currently spending millions of dollars in forex to import fertilisers hence the building of a coal-fertiliser plant in Chiredzi will be a game-changer in the country’s agriculture revolution.
Zimbabwe also spends a fortune annually importing fuel so the Lusulu coal to fuel project will be handy to the country’s economic fortunes and import substitution targets.
