The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo Chamber of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has appointed its first female vice chairperson, Ms Sithabile Bhebhe, as it moves towards promoting a better understanding of the key determinants of successful women-led SMEs.
The Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs is an association that was established in 2011 and is a member of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (ZCSMEs) which is an apex body representing the interests of SMEs at a national level.
Since its establishment in 2011, the association’s top positions of chairperson and vice chairperson have been held by men.
Globally, great strides are being made to promote gender equality, women are slowly taking up positions that have over the years been male dominated.
In March, as the world commemorated Women’s Month, Ms Bhebhe was voted in as the first female vice chairperson of the Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs.
“It is with great privilege that after votes were cast I won and I was elected vice chairperson of the Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs, the first female in this position.”
Ms Bhebhe said often women fear taking up leadership roles as they think only men are capable of leading.
She said it was time women stopped looking down upon each other and work together to uplift each other so that they can positively develop their communities and country at large.
In terms of her contribution to the SMEs sector, Ms Bhebhe said:
“My aim is to work well with women and attend to their problems but generally all the SMEs regardless of whom they are owned addressing their challenges will be my top priority.”
Through some of her engagements with SMEs, she said one of the key issues they have raised was ill treatment by landlords and by the police at times.
Ms Bhebhe said as their leader she was calling upon SMEs in Bulawayo to come forward and highlight some of the challenges hindering their growth so that as an association they can take them further and look for best possible solutions.
“I can never stress enough the point of seeing Bulawayo SMEs growing and sustaining livelihoods.
“Assuming this position, I saw it as a difficult task ahead of me but working together with others and the SMEs themselves, I have come to realise that it’s actually easy.
“I am prepared to work with the SMEs and bring out the best in them,” she added.
Ms Bhebhe said there were a lot of programmes already lined up for the year that include capacitating SMEs for them to grow and tap into bigger markets.
She said they were going to lobby the relevant Government Ministries and departments to develop SMEs work spaces to be conducive enough for them to boost their productions.
Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs chairperson, Mr Coustin Ngwenya said they were promoting uptake of influential positions by women with their executive committee consisting of nine members, with six females and three males.
“We are trying to promote the elevation of women to top leadership positions.
“There seems to be a growing number of women-led SMEs, so we want their voices to be heard and their needs addressed.”
Mr Ngwenya said in terms of programmes they were training and conscientising SMEs on the need to be registered so that they could reap various benefits that comes with it.
He said being registered could position Bulawayo SMEs to qualify for tenders from the Government and other institutions.
