GOVT DELIVERS 11 381 OUT OF 40 126 PROMISED JOBS

MBABANE – Government has been able to deliver 11 381 jobs out of the 40 126 that were promised through the Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan (ERP).

The plan was launched by the late Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, on  August 14, 2020. The jobs created represent 28.3 per cent of the initial jobs that were promised through the plan. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, 1 702 jobs were made redundant from January 2020 to March 2021. This was revealed during a press conference held at the Hilton Garden Inn yesterday, where the delivery unit led by Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo was giving an update on the progress of the plan.  Khumalo was accompanied by members of the delivery unit which include businessman Sithofeni Ginindza, Nathi Dlamini from Business Eswatini for private sector-led projects, Bhekizwe Maziya (Youth Fund CEO) and others. “During the 2020/21 financial year, 49 new investments were realised and 11 381 jobs  created,” said Khumalo.  

Created

Khumalo said the jobs were created across the different sectors which are retail, commercial banks, property developers, investment companies, and manufacturers’ investment on infrastructure such as shopping complexes, petrol filling station, warehouses, hardware stores and many others. The minister said these jobs were created under the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Domestic Investment. Mangaliso Mohammed, a Research Economist and Acting Senior Research Fellow at Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre (ESEPARC) broke down the different projects and companies under the ERP. He mentioned that some of the projects under the ERP were in different stages which are preparation, implementation and completed stages.

Mohammed highlighted that Kellogg’s project which came with E203 million worth of investor assets, was implemented in 18 months and was complete and currently operational at 50 per cent operational capacity. He said FuelEx, which was also adopted under the recovery plan, was launched in December 2020. This project, which entails the construction of the E100 million project in the category of energy, is still ongoing and it was expected to contribute to the economy’s drive to reduce supply risk of energy. He said implementation of this project would see creation of about 150 job opportunities. He further explained that the Lavumisa 10MW solar plant which came with an investment of E255 million and created 170 job opportunities was now complete. He said on May 26, 2021, the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, Peter Bhembe, announced the completion of this project.

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