Verify Engineering eyes export market

Zvamaida Murwira

Senior Reporter 

Technology development agency Verify Engineering, whose medical oxygen plant was opened less than a year ago by President Mnangagwa, is not just supplying Zimbabwean hospitals but has already won contracts in Mozambique, is in advanced negotiations in Botswana and is targeting Zambia and Malawi.

In an interview at the plant in Feruka near Mutare recently, Verify Engineering CEO Engineer Pedzisai Tapfumaneyi said the plant was meeting Zimbabwean requirements and was now pushing exports.

“We have started registering our products with organs that guide international trade like Comesa and Sadc and we are also riding on the bilateral agreements which have been done with Zimbabwe,” he said. 

“To be specific, we have signed an agreement with Mozambique. The Ministry of Health of Mozambique has given us four hospitals. In a month or so, we will be installing four vessels so that we start supplying them with liquid oxygen. So a lot of engineering has started.

“With Botswana, a lot of work is taking shape, we will also be discussing with Zambia, Malawi and other countries.”

Eng Tapfumaneyi said the sales of medical and industrial oxygen and nitrogen had risen considerably, ever since the commissioning of the plant last year. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe certified the products for medical use in December last year allowing the main marketing drive from January.

Sales are increasing monthly and new customers are coming on board. “We are excited that big and small players are using our products. We are also having feedback on our products which is also helping in improving our systems so much that by end of year, we would have gone very far in gaining and penetrating the market,” said Eng Tapfumaneyi.

So far, Verify Engineering has opened nine branches in Hwange, Bulawayo, Chiredzi, Chitungwiza, Kwekwe and Gweru with more branches set to be opened in other places in the next two months, as the company seeks to cover the whole country.  The branch network means that customers can collect where they are based and have no need to travel all the way to Feruka to pick up their orders.  Verify Engineering is also collaborating with local universities and other institutions of higher learning in designing innovative products.

“We are under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and there is no way we cannot collaborate with all the others within our ministry.

“We are working with the Harare Institute of Technology so that we have spares that are needed for our plants. We are working with Midlands State University; we are designing one of their manufacturing plants. We are also with National University of Science and Technology; there is room to collaborate on our lithium battery project. We have students from all these institutions,” said Eng Tapfumaneyi.

The firm is excited that their purity level of oxygen now stands at 100 percent and they recently installed a new filling station which will be taking from their bulk storage tanks.

“I am happy that we have started packaging 100 percent purity of oxygen, 96,6 percent of nitrogen. We are ready to serve everyone in the market,” he said.

Eng Tapfumaneyi commended the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa for creating a conducive environment for the attainment of Vision 2030.

“As for Vision 2030, the Government has laid a foundation for economic growth. Growth can only be done through capacitating infrastructure development. At Verify Engineering, we are capacitating that through supply of these gases. 

“They are needed by our industry. Right now there is one firm supplying oxygen so we have come in the market to complement that company,” he said.

Site manager, Engineer Tawanda Gotoza, said Verify was conscious of the need to observe environmental, safety, health and legal obligations.

“During the launch, we were producing 2,5 tonnes of liquid nitrogen a day, but we have upgraded to 7,5 tonnes per day. Nitrogen has many uses; it is a clean gas. It is also used by those in cattle breeding where they want preservation of semen during artificial insemination,” he said. 

As a largely inert gas, nitrogen is used where a non-reactive atmosphere is required and liquid nitrogen is the default choice for those who need to keep products very cold.

Verify Engineering (Pvt) Ltd is a wholly Government owned private limited company formed in April 2005 under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development. But it was the Second Republic that has been pushing it forward as a main developer and applier of technology in Zimbabwe.

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