ZIMBABWE and other African countries are losing billions of dollars in potential revenue from sale of leather products due to poor industrialisation policies and weak value-addition strategies, a leather expert in Ethiopia has said.
Mekonnen Hailemariam from the Leather Institute in Addis Ababa, on Thursday told African journalists attending an African Union media awareness on the Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa (Aida) framework and related strategies and industrial policy literacy, that 16% of global hides and skins were from the continent, but the source countries were earning very little from the leather industry.