Govt Empowers and Incentivise Small businesses
Staff Reporter
The government will soon provide more incentives for small businesses while business regulatory services and registrations will now be streamlined and decentralized to accelerate the formalisation process.
Speaking during a post-cabinet briefing yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet has directed that funding capacity be expanded for the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO), and the Zimbabwe Women Micro Finance Bank.
“Incentives will enable finance institutions to extend long-term finance instruments to MSMEs, particularly in the machinery and equipment production business.
“Resources will also be channelled towards enabling the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) to support product and systems certification for products of 20 from MSMEs and thereby enhance their regional and international competitiveness,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the process of mainstreaming MSMEs development in the Devolution Agenda will now be accelerated, with particular attention on workspace provision for the various categories of enterprises across all provinces and districts.
“The Ministry is collaborating with universities, innovation hubs and industrial parks to promote technology transfer and the formalization of informal enterprises,” she said.
She also said that the Government was aware of the challenges constraining the operations of MSMEs, among them limited access to finance, antiquated machinery, lack of formalization, and low business management skills.
“The nation is therefore being assured that under the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Policy running from 2021 to 2025, robust interventions are being implemented to assist the MSMEs sector which has proven to be a global game changer in socio-economic transformation,” she added.
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