Ronny Zikhali in Bulawayo


THE Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives is making concerted efforts to open a secondary stock market exchange for Small and Medium Enterprises, a Cabinet official has said.
In an interview recently, the Minister of Small to Medium Enterprises and Cooperative, Sithembiso Nyoni said SMEs are the foundation for private sector development in any country thus the need for Government to fully support them so as to ensure economic turnaround.
“They (SMEs) are already contributing a very significant percentage to the Gross Domestic Product. For instance I was in Beitbridge at the end of February and the number of SMEs that were bringing in goods through Beitbridge was overwhelming.
“In 2008 alone they brought 65 percent of revenue and 35 percent was from the big companies. Lets face facts how many bigger companies are paying taxes? If SMEs were to be placed in designated areas with good infrastructure they will definitely pay taxes to their Government and contribute towards the fiscus,” Minister Nyoni said.
She said efforts to start an SMEs bourse have over the years been hampered by the downturn of the country’s economy.
“I have been talking to Mr (Emmanuel) Munyuki (Zimbabwe Stock Exchange chief executive officer) and we will re-engage to see how far we go and what needs to be done because the paper work has already been done and what we need to do is to see how we brining it into fruition. We are triggering that now that our economy is picking up.
“It’s (bourse) going to assist them (SMEs) in terms of investment and capitalising them because when one puts his or her company into the SMEs stock exchange it means a certain percentage is gong to be sold to the public and uses that public funding to grow their business and in terms of indigenisation this is one way to go, Minister Nyoni said.
She said there has to be threshold at which SMEs have to borrow without stringent collateral agreements.
“We feel that there has to be a threshold at which SMEs have to borrow without security but we are also encouraging group lending...
“We want the SMEs to work together not necessarily as cooperatives but as support groups. We are encouraging savings and credit schemes and as I speak we have 33 village banks most of which are run by women,” Minister Nyoni said.