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Pride Mahlangu, Business Reporter

ECONOMIC experts have commended Government’s proposal to establish a small and medium enterprises (SMEs) stock exchange saying this will go a long way in formalising the sector and mobilisation capital for its growth.

In his state of the nation address on Tuesday, President Mnangagwa said an SMEs stock exchange would soon be established to help unlock the sector’s potential. SMEs usually face capitalisation challenges, which hinder their growth.

Economist and Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce past president, Mr Luxon Zembe, said an SMEs stock exchange would widen opportunities for informal sector to participate in financial markets and boost their operations.

“SMEs exchanges will formalise the sector to start participating in the mainstream economy. They will be considered as a major sector, which is contributing to the GDP as well as access to funding, access to investments and their contribution to the fiscus, which will be very good for the country,” he said.

Another economic analyst, Dr Gift Mugano, said an SMEs bourse would bring massive yields for SMEs.

“Where we have a certain level of structured SMEs, it makes sense to have a local bourse for SMEs because it will help them mobilise capital to fund their operations,” he added.

Empowerment lobbyist, Mr Sam Ncube, said the idea of SMEs stock exchange was right and expressed hope that more research will be done to buttress its implementation.

“If they have done a research and they have seen that this can benefit the SMEs then let’s go for it and at the same time it’s promoting inclusivity. Everyone has got to be included in the economy. 

“It’s such things that can help us develop and have employment creation,” he said.

Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs chairperson, Mr Energy Majazi, said the association was going to conduct a meeting over the matter. — @pridesinstinctz