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At a meeting yesterday representatives from the two organisations met with Red Star representatives to convince them to provide them with loans at an affordable rate to boost their business activities.
The meeting which was also attended by a representative from the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development saw the Hwange SMEs and Victoria Falls business community receiving a promise of loans.

The operations manager at the Bulawayo Red Star branch, Mr Duncan Mambera, said they were going to consider the plight of small businesses in Zimbabwe.
“We now have credit forms for different categories and we are going to issue those forms          to all the business organisations so that they               have a look and be able to also apply for the              loans so that they can boost their operations,” he said.

Hwange SMEs said their local authority had already promised to give them land to build a wholesale for their benefit.
Mr Mambera said their objective as a company was to support SMEs as they had seen that                 they were not developing due to a number of constraints.
“We hope the loans that we are planning to              give them will help them develop and grow since most of them have problems with financing,” he said.

The chairman of Hwange SMEs, Mr Themba Chauke, said Red Star had already delivered           some groceries in Hwange by trucks, a move that was appreciated by the Hwange business community.
“Some retailers were now resorting to ordering from big supermarkets like TM and Buscod which was resulting in price hikes,” he said.

The Victoria Falls business community chairman, Mr Dumisani Masuku, said there was just one wholesaler in the resort, making it difficult for small businesses to operate.
“There are many vacant places that Red Star could come and fill in so as to help Victoria Falls develop for we cannot depend on Hwange when we can also have a wholesale at our door step,” Mr Masuku said.