The Sunday News
DENMARK has provided a $30,9 million grant to the Zimbabwean Government which will go towards supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) involved in agrobusiness, a Cabinet minister told Sunday News.
The European country is a member of the Zimbabwe Multi Donor Trust Fund (Zim-Fund) set up in 2010 to support the country’s economic recovery.
The fund, which is managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), has about $125 million in contributions from seven European countries, namely Denmark, Australia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In an interview, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development, Cde Sithembiso Nyoni, said of the total amount offered for the agrobusiness SMEs, $6 million would be used for capacity building, while the remaining $24 million had been set aside to fund projects.
She said the fund was being administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, but interested SMEs would have to come through her ministry to access the fund.
“We have divided the fund into two. Six million dollars is going to be used for capacity building while the remainder is earmarked to fund projects. By capacity building we are looking at providing technical support to our SMEs, training and the like. The $24 million will be used to fund projects and these projects have to be agrobusiness projects.
“The fund is specifically for SMEs in the agrobusiness. We are looking at projects such as peanut butter making, grain milling, and cooking oil production among such other projects. SMEs that are into agrobusiness are encouraged to apply through my ministry,” she said.
Cde Nyoni encouraged SMEs involved in agrobusiness to form clusters before applying for funding, saying that formation of clusters would help boost production as well as improve positioning of SMEs on the market.
She also encouraged farmers to incorporate value addition to their activities by processing their farm produce before selling.
The SMEs minister said such farmers, who were interested in adding value to their farm produce, were also encouraged to apply for the fund.
“We encourage our SMEs to form clusters and then apply for the grant. That way you can be assured that the funding will be used to enhance production on a larger scale. Forming clusters also helps SMEs to position themselves well on the market and claim a bigger market share, which is what every other business is looking for.
“We have farmers who are into small grains production, we also encourage them to incorporate value addition into their activities as this will increase the value of their produce. For example a ground nuts farmer can also venture into peanut butter making and realise more value from their produce in the process.
“Such farmers are also encouraged to come forward and apply for funding, as well as get technical support,” she said.
Reiterating Government’s commitment to supporting SMEs, Cde Nyoni, revealed that her ministry had set up technical facility centres at various tertiary institutions around the country which SMEs should use to their advantage.
She said the technical facility centres had state-of-the-art equipment, which SMEs that are into manufacturing could take advantage of.
“Further to providing training and funding to our SMEs, my ministry has also set up technical facility centres at various polytechnic colleges around the country for our SMEs.
“We have put in place state-of-the-art equipment and we encourage the SMEs to visit those centres and make arrangements on how they can take advantage of those centres.
“SMEs in Lupane are already using the facility that we set up at Lupane University and they are operating as a cluster. I’m reliably informed that they have already clinched a deal with the university to provide furniture and beds for the students.
“This is what we encourage SMEs to do and I am pleased with what the people in Lupane are doing,” she said.
According to a survey carried out by the World Bank, Zimbabwe in 2012 had over 3,8 million SMEs which were owned by about 2,7 million entrepreneurs, and and providing employment for over 5,7 million people, which is about 90 percent of the country’s employable population.
Cde Nyoni said such data was evidence of the role that SMEs played in the country’s economic development.
