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David Chapfika

Business Reporter
THE Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development will this week conduct public hearings to obtain stakeholder input on the proposed Movable Property Security Interests Bill.

Zimbabwe is working on the Movable Property Security Interests Bill that seeks to facilitate increased access to credit for micro, small and medium enterprises as well as communal farmers.

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development David Chapfika, who is also the legislator for Mutoko South, told Business Chronicle that two teams would be deployed by his committee to conduct the public hearings across the country starting today.

“Starting Monday next week, the Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development will be conducting marathon public hearings on the proposed Movable Property Security Interests Bill. Two teams will be deployed to cover the northern and southern regions of the country. In the Southern region, our team will be at Fairmile Hotel in Gweru on Monday, Tuesday at Flamboyant Hotel in Masvingo before descending on Bulawayo at Rainbow hotel on Wednesday.

“The following day, we will be in Gwanda before proceeding to Victoria Falls on Friday and on Saturday we will hold public hearing meetings for the southern region in Kadoma,” said Cde Chapfika.

The team to cover the northern region of the country is also expected to meet stakeholders in Mutare, Marondera, Harare, Chinhoyi and Bindura.

Cde Chapfika said all the public hearings would be conducted between 10AM and 12PM.

He said this week’s meetings seek to gather public views pertaining to the proposed Bill as guaranteed by the Constitution.

“Nobody has monopoly over ideas and that is why we are consulting the public and other stakeholders as it is a Constitutional requirement that we consult the public before coming up with a Bill,” Cde Chapfika said.

The objective of the proposed law is to facilitate industry and trade as well as other socio-economic activities by enabling businesses and individuals to utilise their movable property as collateral for credit.

In the past, micro, small and medium scale enterprises have been restricted from accessing credit from the banking sector due to the absence of immovable collateral security.

Consequently, this has affected the growth and development of businesses under the micro, small and medium enterprise sector.

It also hoped that the Bill will be used by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in creating a collateral registry as well as publicising the potential existence of interests in the collateral.

A collateral registry is a publicly available database of interests in or ownership of movable assets allowing borrowers to prove their credit worthiness and potential lenders to assess their ranking priority in potential claims against particular collateral.

RBZ has said collateral that can be used as security includes equipment, inventory, accounts receivable, farm products, household items, fixtures, and bank accounts, among others.

— @okazunga