Foreign investors increase support for women businesses

Gwanda Correspondent
FOREIGN investors are increasingly keen to finance economic projects run by women but cannot do that because most female owned businesses are disorganised.
Speaking during a Women in Business meeting in Gwanda Town yesterday, Women Alliance of Business Association in Zimbabwe (WABAZ) chairperson Judith Mhizha said:
“There’re investors coming from overseas, coming through ZIA (Zimbabwe Investment Authority) that are prepared to work with women but they need us to be organised first and affiliate to associations.

“At the moment it’s difficult for investors to work with us because most of us are not organised. Some of these investors are already working with businesswomen in other African countries and their businesses are progressing well.”

Mhizha said some of the investors wanted to sponsor energy projects such as solar projects and enhance female participation in natural resource exploitation.
“Most women want to do informal trading. These investors want to deal with formalised sectors. Therefore, I’m appealing to all women to formalise their businesses so that we grab such opportunities because that’s the only way our country can prosper,” said Mhizha.

WABAZ is a coalition of Women in Business associations in the country formed in 2011 and is affiliated to the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC).
So far WABAZ is composed of 16 Women in Business associations representing more than 16,000 informal and formal women entrepreneurs.

The organisation seeks to empower women business associations through proactive engagement, networking, research and information sharing.
ZNCC chief economist Kipson Gundani said women needed to appreciate the potential they have in turning around the economy.

“Women in Business in Zimbabwe are not that organised yet they have so much potential. Women need to grow in terms of business thinking and the onus is now upon them to think outside the box.

“It’s now a myth to say the policy environment does not favour women because government has done a lot for women in that area. Therefore, we need women to get organised and meaningfully contribute to the economy,” he said.

Gundani said the country’s regulations were very punitive, making it difficult for businesses to operate formally hence compromising cash flow into the fiscus.
“Formal business women are on the rise but still very few, most are still informal. Government must make it simple for one to do business,” he said, adding that women should learn to support each other.

The meeting was attended by representatives of Women in Business from various sectors of the economy drawn from all the seven districts of Matabeleland South Province.