The Key Challenges Facing the Textiles and Apparel Manufacturing Firms in Zimbabwe: A Case Study of Harare Province

The purpose of the study was to investigate the key challenges facing the textiles and apparel firms in Zimbabwe focusing on Harare Province. The research design used was the descriptive research with a population of thirteen textiles and apparel firms. The study consisted of a sample of ninety four respondents. A structured questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. The questionnaire consisted of sixty one structured questions. The questionnaire was given to experts at Solusi University for face and content validity. A pilot study was carried out in five companies randomly selected in Bulawayo Province. The reliability of the questionnaires was determined using the Cronbanch’s Alpha reliability method. The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.3 was obtained and was very low, however when factor analysis was done the commonalities showed that all items were valid henceforth reliable. In addition seven factors were extracted accounting for 80.8% of the variance hence the researcher preceded with the final study. The data for the final study was collected from thirteen companies. Data was collected, coded and analysed using Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version sixteen. The study revealed that the major thirteen challenges the textiles and apparel firms were facing and the solutions respectively from the most critical one are growth, cost of capital, government policies, wage bill, management skills, technical skills, market share, imports, technology adoption and diffusion challenges, work experience, export challenges, firm size and management commitment. Based on these findings, recommendations were made.