SMEs growth hinges on partnerships: Nyoni

a Cabinet minister said yesterday.
Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operatives Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni, who was recently in Iran for an SMEs conference, noted that lack of partnerships in the sector was curtailing growth.
“Almost 90 percent of the Iranian economy has some element of co-operative input.
“Local SMEs have potential to do well but they remain underfunded and funds that come in do so at a slow pace and in little amounts,” said Mrs Nyoni.
Asian countries and other African states attended the conference.
She said partnerships with big players would significantly improve revenue inflows for small enterprises.
She added that the ventures would also expose the players to the latest technologies and means of production, improving the quality of products.
“SMEs elsewhere are now into research and value addition and are fast becoming major players in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors,” said Mrs Nyoni.
The perennial unavailability of funds and state-of-art machinery has resulted in SMEs failing to develop into medium and eventually big players.
Mrs Nyoni said she had presented profiles of local SMEs to various participants. “I took the opportunity to invite co-operatives from the countries to attend local celebrations of the International Co-operatives Day set for July.” – New Ziana.