Hosia Mviringi
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has commissioned the Feruka Oxygen and Nitrogen Plant in Mutare, a first of its kind in the country.
The official commissioning of the plant assembled by Verify Engineering, was initially penciled for last week but was deferred due to adverse weather in Mutare.
President Mnangagwa said the plant is in line with the theme of the just ended SADC 41st SADC summit.
“It is most opportune that this plant is being commissioned on the background of the 41st SADC Summit held this week under the theme, ” Bolstering Productive Capacities in the Face of the Covid-19 Pandemic for Inclusive, Sustainable Economic and Industrial Transformation,” said President Mnangagwa.
“This project further contributes to our country’s implementation of the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap as well as the new Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020-2030, with regards to the realisation of a competitive and industrialised region,” added President Mnangagwa.
Verify Engineering Company, an entity conceived and formed under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development is mandated under the Education 5.0, to create efficient technology-based companies which will feed new ideas as well as opportunities into the economy.
The Plant which is set to be a game changer in the production and supply of medical oxygen in the country and the region, when in full production is capable of meeting the country’s oxygen needs in five days, and has the capacity to earn foreign currency through growing of exports.
“Noteworthy is the fact that Verify Engineering now has an installed capacity to produce 20 tonnes, 16.5 tonnes and 2.5 tonnes of gaseous oxygen, liquid oxygen and nitrogen respectively, per day,” said President Mnangagwa.
The plant will produce gaseous oxygen and acetylene, the two most critical gases needed in any metal fabrication operation.
This will have the net effect of encouraging industrial growth across the economy, while offering critical import substitution, foreign currency savings and employment creation down and upstream.
“This production capacity will result in national self-sufficiency in these products. Scope exists for exporting excess gas into the region, towards strengthening regional capacity to tackle emerging challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic,” said President Mnangagwa.
Medical oxygen is critical in the first aid resuscitation of patients who can not breathe on their own, usually through ventilators. It is also used by athletes in high altitudes or training in such sporting disciplines as hiking.
With only one out of the three plant stalled capacity, Zimbabwe is guaranteed of interrupted supply of medical oxygen from just five days of production.
It means that when all three units are fully functional by end of September this year, the country will have all three plants ready to produce Oxygen, Nitrogen and Acetylene for export to earn the country lucrative foreign currency.
President Mnangagwa has pledged the government’s commitment to continue fostering policies and institute measures that support commercialisation and entrepreneurship, built on Zimbabwe’s priority areas, as the nation progresses towards a knowledge-based economy as educated in the National Development Strategy 1 blueprint.
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