Chronicle Editor
Rutendo Nyeve and Judith Phiri, Business Reporters
BULAWAYO Small to Medium Enterprise players have been urged to perfect their products and eye global market opportunities that present export volume growth.
Over 60 SMEs at the Bulawayo SME centre are said to have the potential to cater for both the local and international markets if they are well capacitated.
The centre was officially launched by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) together with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Small to Medium Enterprises Development in December last year.
It was constructed with ILO funding to the tune of US$165 000 and it is meant to provide decent workplaces for small businesses.
During a recent tour of the refurbished centre, Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social welfare chief director, Mr Clifford Matorera said SMEs should work on perfecting their products and not only look at serving local clients.
“We want to thank you for the zeal to do better.
I think we must try by all means in the various sectors we are operating in to perfect our finished products because your market should not be Bulawayo, Zimbabwe or Sadc.
“We have an arrangement for the continent through an agreement which was signed known as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we should occupy that space.
Hence, people should know that there is a product from Zimbabwe, from Bulawayo that we can supply throughout Africa and to any other country on the globe,” said Mr Matorera.
He said Government ministries and bodies such as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce as well as ZimTrade could assist with securing markets for SMEs.
Mr Matorera said Government had the potential of linking them with bigger markets which they could then feed into and grow their businesses.
ILO director for Zimbabwe and Namibia Ms Hopolang Phororo said the centre was a good example of how partnerships among different stakeholders work.
“This is a good example of how partnerships can yield good results.
There is however, more room for the SMEs to be capacitated, elevated and grow.
There is need to profile these SMEs as a way to understand and get an appreciation of how their businesses have grown before the construction rehabilitation and afterwards how is it going for them,” she said.
The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Bulawayo provincial development officer Mr Dingani Dhlomo said the ministry was keen to drive the transition from the informal economy.
“The Ministry is grateful for the assistance it received and the drive is to see the SMEs growing.
Traders in the informal sector have been urged to formalise their operations so that they can access external market benefits.
Working on decent spaces would also play a big part in enabling SMEs to formalise their operations,” said Mr Dhlomo.
Bulawayo City Council Town Planner Mr Shepherd Sithole said the development was a great initiative for the city and the setup could be replicated in other parts of the city for more SMEs to get assisted.
Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs chairperson Mr Coustin Ngwenya, who was represented by the programme coordinator, Mr Nketha Dlamini said they were to roll out more capacity building programmes aimed at boosting production and formalisation of enterprises in the sector.
The various SMEs at the centre specialise in clothing, printing, manufacturing, detergent making among others.
The SMEs sector has been highly regarded in economic sustenance.
In 2016, the SMEs sector contributed US$8,58 billion to Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product and employed more than 5,9 million people.
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