THIS is the second article in this series where a non-economist makes observations on Zimbabwe’s efforts to build its economy. Because I have no training in economics I am thinking ‘outside the box’ with no textbook to refer to, but my day to day experiences and gut feelings. Sometimes I feel the ‘educated’ do us a disservice by always trying to fit things to the theories they learnt at college or university. Most of the economic theory in academic textbooks was developed by people with no African experience. Therefore its relevance to some of the many economic challenges facing Africa could be questionable. Here I invite our economists to move out and away from their academic economic boxes and catch some fresh air. These are the views of a concerned citizen. Can we get textbooks on the local economy? Most people agree the economy in Zimbabwe no longer fits the classical format of those found in more developed Western countries. The growth of the informal sector is the main reason for this change. There are thousands of new businesses including vending, small-to-medium and large businesses. Even the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) is struggling to include them in their revenue collection programme. Most of these people are driven by economic necessity to eke out a living as best as they can, with barely any business skills, training or technical advice. It is a classic ‘sink or swim’ situation. The learning curve is steep, sharp and often painful. My argument is that most Zimbabwean indigenous businesses are in their infant stages. We need to study and document our experiences while at the same time working fast to find solutions to the economic challenges facing the population. In the first instalment in our discussion on building Zimbabwe’s economy, I pointed out that at independence, as indigenous black Africans, we owned very little of the formal industrial economy of Zimbabwe. Africans were mostly into small-scale retail, repair, transport and catering to name a few business areas of activity. I argued that the economy we are trying to resuscitate is in fact one that belonged and still largely belongs to our erstwhile colonisers, the British and their kith and kin from Europe and America. I argued that we indigenous black Zimbabweans are only now attempting to establish an economy run and owned by black Zimbabweans. That is the critical stage we have reached: indigenising and economically empowering our people. We need to think carefully about how we go about it. Many businesses will grow spontaneously from the creative genius of our people, but lack of capital, business skills and technical and advisory support tends to keep these initiatives in a more or less ‘juvenile’ state so to speak; like a child struggling to become an adult. Research is required to find out how best to grow these businesses under our prevailing environment. Relevant ministries must urgently sit at the drawing board to fashion ways (through appropriate research) in which various businesses can be nurtured and supported to grow. Already much is being done in this respect and we need to continue. It must be a deliberate national effort. Areas with potential for growing big business with local participation must be identified. Practicality must replace rhetoric and sloganeering. We must walk the talk as they say. In terms of owning and running formal businesses, the majority of us Africans are still in ‘pre-school’ as it were, having been conditioned through the education system, to be job-seekers. We shall need a sharp and steep learning curve to transit into the formal business mode. How will our transforming education system prepare the next generation to drive the local industry and not want to go to Anglo-Saxon countries to seek for a job? Resuscitating collapsed or ailing businesses is not necessarily the same as economically empowering locals. Those businesses were largely owned by foreigners, mostly British and American. Does resuscitation mean calling back the owners, repairing or replacing the old factory machines with the hope that more of us Africans can get employment? The share ownership will need to be restructured too in favour of Africans! Efforts to revive ailing or collapsed businesses amount to tinkering with the economy. They constitute what can be called effecting minor repairs to what was already existing. That would be woefully inadequate to meet the expectations of the new Zimbabwe! The brave new Zimbabwe will need to go way beyond economic repair and maintenance. With the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET) as a guide, Zimbabweans must work to transform the economy into a vibrant ‘animal’ run and controlled by Zimbabweans. Creating such an economy will require visionary leadership, courage and humility. Visionary leadership as can correctly read the signs of the times and the directions of global economic tides: President Robert Mugabe’s Look East Policy represents this element well. Courage is required to break new ground and work outside the box to formulate new economic strategies. Both political and economic pressure will be brought to bear on Zimbabwe from those who used to milk the country’s resources to their advantage. Despite boasting of 92 percent literacy, our educated have no ideological orientation to work in our local industries. The theoretical education has not prepared our young to venture into business. So we must humbly start building a business culture and the businesses themselves and not strut around thinking we are streets ahead of other Africans. The pedigree of Zimbabwean economists and other technocrats will be tested to the limit as we build a new brave economy. Those who read and sheepishly follow Western economics textbooks will not add value to this phase of our struggle. We will need technocrats with the courage to do the right thing, not necessarily the ‘correct’ thing as indicated in the reference books. We will need such courage as that displayed by former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr Gideon Gono during Zimbabwe’s recent currency crisis. He thought outside the box and out-foxed those who sought to effect regime change through destroying our currency in order to turn the masses against their government. Many hate the man, but he had the courage to do the unthinkable which allowed the country to survive to fight another day. If there is a time when Zimbabweans must write their own economic textbook, it is now! Do we have the men and women to undertake these courageous steps? The steps are not written anywhere on a piece of paper. We had men and women of courage during the First and Second Chimurenga. The bones of Murenga, Chaminuka, Kaguvi and Nehanda Nyakasikana must rise again! Let our people and their leadership be inspired and fortified with divine mystic power from Musikavanhu, God so as to develop Zimbabwe’s economy for the benefit of this and future generations.