Economy highly informal, driven by trading- Zim first economic census

Between June 2024 and March 2025, Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZimStat) did the first ever Economic Census, “to understand the structure and size of the economy”.

It aimed to provide statistics that will enable the government, private sector, research institutions, academia and other stakeholders understand the economic landscape of the country, thereby facilitating evidence-based policy formulation, decision-making and strategic planning.

-Facilitate evaluation of various developmental policies and programmes including the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), Africa Agenda 2063 and SDGs

-Provide data on the geographical distribution of economic activities and establishments to support:
Development of a Statistical Business Register (SBR) for survey sampling, Compilation of national accounts tools such as Supply and Use Tables and Social Accounting Matrices, updating weights for economic indices.

Here’s what they found:

? Of the 204,798 operations or ‘establishments’ assessed over the period, 76.1% were informal. They’re not registered with the Companies Registry, Zimra, NSSA

? Of the companies surveyed, 88% are micro-enterprises

? Trading is the biggest sector by numbers. 73.13% of the surveyed companies are traders. Only 8.24% are manufacturers

? Of the 17,877 establishments that are in manufacturing, just 19% were formal

? Of those 204,798 operations, the bulk – 89.42% – are owned by individuals.

? Bulawayo has the highest number of registered operations.

Economic Census Objectives
Come up with comprehensive baseline statistics on the size and structure of the country’s economy.

Provide statistics that will enable the government, private sector, research institutions, academia and other stakeholders understand the economic landscape of the country, thereby facilitating evidence-based policy formulation, decision-making and strategic planning.

Facilitate evaluation of various developmental policies and programmes including the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), Africa Agenda 2063 and SDGs.

Provide data on the geographical distribution of economic activities and establishments to support:
Development of a Statistical Business Register (SBR) for survey sampling, Compilation of national accounts tools such as Supply and Use Tables and Social Accounting Matrices,
Updating weights for economic indices.

Zwnews