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Lovemore Kadzura
Rusape Correspondent
GOVERNMENT is on a drive to promote Small to Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs)who are in the manufacturing and agricultural value chain by capacitating them to grow their production levels.
Speaking on the sidelines of a week-long training session for 70 entrepreneurs in Rusape last week, Senior Business Development Officer in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Mr Kumbirai Chikoya said Government is targeting start-ups in productive sectors such as manufacturing, livestock development and light engineering.
The 70 entrepreneurs received training from the ministry and other stakeholders such as the Standards Association of Zimbabwe, Registrar of Companies, Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, ZIMRA and local authorities. Potential funders were also present.
“SMES have been recognised by the National Development Strategy (NDS1), not only as key to employment creation, inclusive growth, innovation and women empowerment, but also critical in contributing to manufacturing growth as we look forward to Vision 2030.
“One of the challenges that we have realised in upcoming and new enterprises is that they lack various support services that are critical to the growth of their businesses; issues like registration, access to standards and certification services, public procurement, licenses from local authorities, access to markets and financing.
“This programme brought in a number of organisations, including banks, to assist the SMEs through the provision of various services.
“The organisations shared information with participants on the various products and services they offer. “Government is on a drive to promote SMEs in the manufacturing sector, so this workshop was meant to identify SMEs, both in rural and urban areas.
“Many people are starting small businesses, but the majority of them do not have access to adequate business development services to grow their enterprises, so with this workshop, we hope to promote growth of formalised, competitive and export oriented businesses in Zimbabwe,” said Mr Chikoya.
Makoni Chamber of SMEs secretary, Mr Fred Dube said the training they received was an eye-opener that will open avenues for them in their respective ventures.
“The training was most welcome as most people running SMEs lack the knowhow. We were failing to win tenders as we underestimated important issues such as tax clearance, standards and public procurement procedures to the extent that our supermarkets here are getting supplies of simple products such as vegetables from suppliers outside the district.
“We will formalise our operations so that we enjoy the fruits of our hard work and avoid third parties in dealing with clients,” said Mr Dube.
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