The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
FOUR tanneries from around the country and one from Madagascar received training on environmental sustainability and governance (ESG) to ensure they minimise their environmental footprint, fostering positive social change in the community as well as encouraging ethical business practices.
The tanneries were Prestige Leather Limited, Zambezi Tanners, Tambudze Tanners and Global Tanners from Zimbabwe as well as Aigle D’or Tannery from Madagascar.
The training rolled out by a United Kingdom (UK) company, Sustainable Leather Foundation (SLF) is being supported under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Joint Support to Industrialisation and Productive Sectors (SIPS) programme.
Zimbabwe Leather Development Council (ZLDC) secretary, Mr Jacob Nyathi said the training was part of efforts to empower the leather sector.
“I am delighted to report that this week, five tanneries received training from the SLF on ESG. The training was also attended by a tannery participant from Madagascar,” he said.
“The training which is supported by the SADC Joint SIPS programme, is part of efforts to equip small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the leather with the knowledge to harness their full value potential, while also improving the value chains.
He said on Wednesday, a number of the value chain players and stakeholders attended a value chain strengthening Business to Funders (B2F) engagement in Harare.
Mr Nyathi said among the stakeholders that attended were ZLDC, the country’s trade development and promotion agency, ZimTrade, ZB Bank, ABSA bank, Kukura Business Accelerator (KBA) and Stanbic bank.
“Representatives from Bulawayo Leather Cluster and Harare Leather Cluster were also in attendance. This engagement was also facilitated under the SADC Joint SIPS programme. The overall objective of the SIPS programme is to contribute to the SADC industrialisation and regional integration agenda.”
SIPS is a five-year programme, coordinated by the SADC Secretariat and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and SADC Secretariat financed to the tune of 18 million Euros (€) by the European Union (EU) under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF).
The programme, which covers all the 16 SADC Member States, is being implemented over a period of 55 months. Specifically, SIPS aims to enhance policy, regulatory and operational business environment on national and regional levels for the development and sustainable operation of the leather, antiretrovirals (ARVs) and associated value chains and products.
End//
