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Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]

The country’s largest business lobby group, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) is working on renewing linkages with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a view of incorporating the sector in its programmes as it seeks to create synergies and expose the sector to more markets.

SMEs have become a big economic force in the country and across the globe but most of them are still struggling to secure lucrative markets.

In Zimbabwe, the Government expects SMEs to play a pivotal role in transforming the economy towards an upper middle-income status by 2030.

This entails scaling up support for the sector by providing finance and working space to enable the sector to increase the production of quality goods and assist the sector in securing markets.

It is for this reason that the Government under the Second Republic recognises the role played by the sector and availed resources to upscale its growth.

According to the 2021 MSME Survey, the sector has more than 3,4 million members operating in Zimbabwe with the sector employing about 4,8 million people on a full-time basis.

The 2022 Finscope Survey indicated that the sector contributed US$8,6 billion to the GDP that year.

Money – Image taken from Pixabay

CZI chief executive officer Ms Sekai Kuvarika told Business Chronicle on Tuesday that they are engaging the sector as they seek to nurture small businesses.

“Small entities have shown growth potential and are creating jobs so we believe that they are an important segment. We used to have business linkage programmes at CZI and we believe that this resuscitation will bring back those platforms so that we can create synergies as well as market access for the SMEs.

“We believe that this is a category which we will be working more with in the coming years,” she noted.

SMEs have become a major economic player globally and different governments and organisations are coming forward to support the sector from different angles including finance, policy interventions and the provision of a conducive workspace.

The Zimbabwean Government through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and medium Enterprises is also working with different organisations including local authorities and development partners to develop the sector.

CZI is Zimbabwe’s largest business membership organisation with members from the Manufacturing as well as Trade, Transport, IT, Education and Professional Services, making up 36 sub-sectors of the Zimbabwean economy.

Its main focus was on large corporations before incorporating SMEs. — @SikhulekelaniM1