Marketers Association of Zimbabwe in conjunction with 3Ktv hosted the Marketers Luncheon with major highlights on projections of economic growth in 2022.

The event saw a presentation from a renowned economist and also CEO of Bullion Group,Persistence Gwanyanya on the 2022 economic outlook predicting growth of the economy as of 2021 up to 2023 through the agricultural sector and mining.

“Growth is expected to continue in 2022 at 5, 5 percent, driven by; agriculture and mining sector as well as the manufacturing sector” he said

He highlighted that the key drivers firming metal prices in the mining sector growth, strengthening of the auction system and the new monetary policy and exchange rate measures.

Mr Gwanyanya also highlighted that despite the growth there are factors that will always weigh down the economy which include high levels of informalisation and unemployment, the economy continue to be driven by a handful of exports, individuals & corporates.

“Unemployment is one of the major factors that will always weigh down the economy, with many people unemployed there is also high crime rate therefore there is need to increase recovery progress & deal with mounting pressure on the ground.

However we expect a bumper harvest despite the excessive rains and also New Monetary Policy & exchange rate measures to support viability of exporters,” he added.

Gwanyanya pointed out that there are also key risks that could hamper economic growth among them the 2023 General elections which will result in more focus on politics than economics, waning confidence in foreign currency system, widening gap between the interbank and parallel market rate as well as the Covid 19 pandemic among others.

On the positive interventions by Government, Gwanyanya highlighted the recent 50 percent of duties and royalties in the Zimbabwe dollar, 50 percent duties on designated vehicles payable in ZWL and the dual interest rate policy.

“On the outlook, almost everyone is seeing better prospects for Zimbabwe. The IMF and World Bank have recently projected recovery of the Zimbabwean economy.

There is also notable progress on currency stability as well as infrastructure development,” said Gwanyanya.

The event was hosted at The Venue on the 18^th of February 2022 with was well attended giving marketers an opportunity to meet and interact as last year it was not held.

At the same function, guest speaker, Dr Dennis Magaya, the Director of Rubiem Group, who was the presenting on how to leverage on the market trends, emphasised the importance of Digital technologies in today’s business.

He also spoke of disruption due to digital marketing.

“Uber the biggest transportation company doesn’t own a single car but it has workers , the biggest social media platform-Facebook  owns no journalist but it has multiple people writing articles , selling and doing different stuff on for free there things have changed in the business environment,” he said.

Dr Magaya said that business should have a flow and understand the customer journey and it should be designed around customer journey but content as well focusing on the customer value.

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“It is the customer who defines a brand. A brand is the gut feeling you get when a brand is mentioned. A brand is not mentioned by an organisation.

You don’t own the customer, the customer is on a journey. Our organisations and marketing functions were designed in owning the customer but you don’t own the customer. The best you can do is to understand the customer journey,” he said.

3Ktv, the official partners for the 2022 Marketers Luncheon also gave insights and shared highlights from their television station which has since been launched.

The television station’s General manager, Emmanuel Nyamayedenga shared 3Ktv’s objectives among them brand acceptance, recruiting viewers and promoting headline shows as well as brand positioning.

He said the station is good for Zimbabwe as it creates opportunities for young Zimbabwean creative talents, offers training and support in productions and tells the intriguing Zimbabwean stories by Zimbabweans.

3Ktv is now broadcasting on DSTV channel 293.