Vusumuzi DubeJudith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be holding public campaigns to encourage informal traders to formalise their operations, a move that will enable them to benefit from
Government schemes while contributing to the country’s fiscal revenue.
The SMEs sector plays a key role in the development of the country’s economy as it contributes over 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employ over 75 percent of the total workforce.
SMEs have become dominant economic players in Zimbabwe, while a majority of them still operate informally.
In an interview, Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs chairperson Mr Coustin Ngwenya said as an association they were intensifying the push for the formalisation of the sector.
“The major challenge we are facing is the issue of formalisation, not all players are formally registered and operating in accordance with stipulated regulations.
“The Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs will soon start holding public campaigns to encourage SMEs to formalise their operations,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He said formalisation would put an end to the cat and mouse game between council and informal traders who end up losing their wares in the process.
Mr Ngwenya said as the country takes giant steps towards formalisation of the informal sector, as a chamber they were working on tapping into the global market.
“We are set to engage the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) to get assistance in improving the quality of products produced by the SMEs so that they compete on the global market. SAZ will assist us so that we get positive results when testing our products for quality,” he said.
He said there was a need for the SMEs’ products to meet national and global quality standards.
In terms of other key programmes lined up, Mr Ngwenya said they were going to carry out capacity building trainings for SMEs that would include training on financial literacy, business proposal and business plan writing among others.
He said they were also hunting for working space for SMEs as lack of decent premises and services such as water and power were affecting their operations.
Mr Ngwenya added: “Another key issue that needs to be addressed that is hindering the growth of SMEs is lack of access to finance and unavailability or poor access to foreign currency. As a chamber we will be engaging banks and micro-finance institutions to assist SMEs with financing so that they can boost their production.”
He said they will also be referring business development agencies and consultancies to assist SMEs in registration process as well as convincing the agencies to set up affordable rates and reduce cost of registration process for the SMEs as they could barely afford.
The formalisation drive also speaks to the broader ideals of building a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society by 2030, with small businesses contributing to the growth of the economy through paying taxes and increased market linkages and exports.
Online Reporter