The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Sunday News Reporter
BULAWAYO Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have said despite facing some challenges in 2022 they were optimistic and predicting positive revenue growth for their businesses in 2023.
Zimbabwe’s economy is now dominated largely by MSMEs that contribute up to US$8,6 billion (60 percent) to gross domestic product. According to the recent 2022 FinScope Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Consumer Survey MSMEs continue to be a key pillar driving the country’s economic growth. However, a majority of them still operate informally and face various challenges that include lack of business premises and storage facilities as well as power outages.
Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs chairperson Mr Coustin Ngwenya said despite facing various challenges they managed to make it under the difficult circumstances.
“2022 was a tough a year for the SMEs as we were still trying to recover from the effects of Covid-19 pandemic disruptions although we managed to make it under the difficult circumstances. We are however, very optimistic that 2023 will be a better year for business as we remain on the recovery path and slowly move back to the pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels.”
He said a number of projects and programmes were in the pipeline for 2023 as they eye the global market.
Mrs Samkeliso Nyambiri of Liso Clothing, a clothing manufacturer said though 2022 was challenging although they managed to have some few achievements.
“The first half of the year was a bit challenging and recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic disruptions was very slow. For the second half business started to pick up though still slow, however, we have a number of achievements and targets we managed to meet,” said Mrs Nyambiri.
Covid-19
She said some of the other challenges they faced were short supply of raw materials, power cuts and stiff competition from other players in the sector. Mrs Nyambiri said for 2023 they were optimistic that business will be positive for them as they are aiming to diversify and introduce new products.
In the printing sector, Mr Sabelo Dlodlo of Daily Print said power cuts and the instability of the exchange rate affected their business.
“As things were slowly going back to pre-Covid level, from July there was a high demand for some of the products we make such as stationery but there were challenges here and there due to power cuts and the varying exchange rates between bank rate and the black-market rate. As we go into 2023 we are appealing to Government to heed to some of the problems we are facing as MSMEs and provide solutions for us. We are optimist that once that is done, we can have positive growth trajectory for our businesses in 2023.”
Chairman of SMEs at the OK Mart SMEs complex in Bulawayo, Mr Madodana Mpofu said financial support remained one of the key challenges SMEs faced in 2022 and they were hoping to get solutions in 2023.
“SMEs need to be assisted in terms of capital and financing so that they can be able to upgrade their equipment and machinery, which in turn will boost their production. We are calling upon Government and the banking sector to work with SMEs and set up modalities that will see us being assisted financial wise,” said Mr Mpofu.
He said in 2023 they were also going to continuously engage the Government in terms of access to foreign currency to import raw materials and they were hoping to be linked with investors to assist them.
