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Minister Sithembiso Nyoni

Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter
SMALL to Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni says small businesses have made inroads in tapping opportunities in value addition and beneficiation.

Presenting a report on the SMEs sector during the 15th Zanu-PF Annual National Peoples’ Conference in Victoria Falls on Friday, Nyoni identified three pillars that she said must be adopted to improve nutrition and inclusiveness in value addition in the informal sector.

More effort is needed in formalising hundreds of informal sector operators in different sectors such as agriculture and mining, she said.

“In Mashonaland we’ve developed masawu (wild fruit) jam, which has been coded and can now be found in shops. We’re also making powder from baobab fruit as well as oil and jam from marula fruit,” said Nyoni.

She said her ministry was also assisting small businesses in the production of healthy snacks made from roasted pumpkin seeds, which are rich in nutrition.

Minister Nyoni said small businesses were also into tea production projects where villagers could value add umsuzwana (traditional wild tree) leaves to make a herbal tea for the Japanese market.

“These products have been coded and have gone through research and are ready for exportation,” said Nyoni.

“Different programmes have been set up to prepare SMEs for the international market and help them identify, learn and understand sectors in foreign markets that they would trade with.”

She said her ministry was also consulting with Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa to ensure that all hides from slaughtered beasts in villages were accounted for.

Nyoni expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for providing vending space to informal traders in the country.

“We’re presently working on seven pillars that include education, legal framework, working space, market, technology, incubation and financing to help boost productivity within the sector,” said Nyoni.

Chinamasa has said the SMEs sector employ about 60 percent of the country’s workforce and contribute about 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a broad measure of economic activity in a country.