The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Sunday News Reporter
A TOTAL of 36 Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Bulawayo and Matabeleland North provinces have submitted business plans to financial institutions for consideration so that they can be financed with the assistance from the Beef and Leather Value Chain (BLVC) Technical Assistance Project.
The BLVC Technical Assistance project formed in May 2017 is being implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce with funding from the African Development Bank to the tune of $2 million.
Responding to questions from Sunday News, BLVC project co-ordinator Mr Peter Moorhouse said they have linked 36 SMEs with financial institutions for financing in a bid to fully maximise the SMES potential in the beef and leather sector.
“A total of 36 SMES business plans have been submitted to financial institutions for consideration for financing as we seek to improve various sectors of the beef and leather value chain. For access to finance, finance expert Mr Lloyd Guzha-Chanetsa has trained financial counsellors and assisted them to prepare business plans for interested stakeholders (butchers, input suppliers and cattle fatteners). Also a market access expert Ms Patience Samhutsa intends to establish a simple web application to assist with marketing of the SMEs. It is hoped that the e-marketing platform will be developed and prove useful,” said Mr Moorhouse.
He added that the Government was working on the Credit Guarantee Scheme which was proposed last year at the 7th BLVC stakeholders’ workshop as an alternative to stimulate increased lending to SMEs.
Mr Moorhouse said the BLVC Technical Assistance Project has training programmes lined up for 2019 to assist SMEs.
“Capacity building, training of trainers programme will be conducted in March 2019 as follows, 15 stakeholders will be trained in cattle husbandry. They will roll out practical lessons and up-to-date knowledge to selected cattle owners in the seven districts of Matabeleland North and will also cover flaying (removal of hides).
“Moreover, 10 stakeholders’ mainly small business people will be trained in hide collection, hide processing, tanning and manufacturing of leather goods and then roll out to improve hide quality. Also five workers or managers from small abattoirs will be trained in good hygiene practices, grading and flaying removal (many hides are damaged during this process),” said Mr Moorhouse.
He added: “The project has taken steps to ensure that BLVC does not die. We have contacted important stakeholders including the EU-funded Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme, the Zimbabwe Agriculture Development Fund, Livestock and Meat Advisory Council, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the Commercial Farmers Union who have all expressed tangible interest in sustaining the stakeholder platform workshops. Monitoring of outcomes of project beneficiaries (market access, technical progress and financing) will be done on a monthly basis.”
BLVC market access expert Ms Patience Samhutsa said SMEs were able to apply the principles they received from the market access and linkages training last year and they created local markets for their products.
“After the training, SMEs were exposed to several markets, six of the SMEs started getting orders from buyers around Harare such as Barons Fashions, Yerman Quality Foot Wear, Nagarji, Ranger, Shoe Town and Walk Tall some of which were supplied to date. About 10 of the SMEs are already supplying the Bulawayo based buyers such as Edgars, Topics, Fazak and Zambezia Tanneries with the project continuing to monitor the increase in the number of buyers, and other SMEs qualified to supply Truworths.”
She also noted that other SMEs had penetrated regional markets and as BLVC Project, they would continue to monitor them.
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