Leading financial institution, CBZ Holdings has put in place a $10 million facility to support and create value in the Small and Medium Enteprises sector as a way of boosting their competitiveness.
In an interview with 263Chat, CBZ Holdings Acting Group Chief Executive Officer, Peter Zimunya on the sidelines of the ongoing CBZ international SME Indaba 2018 in Bulawayo said they are aiming to support the entire SME value chain.
“The second edition of our International SME Indaba is about creating value for the SME, we have talked about creating the SME and growing them and we are also saying what is the residual value for them.
“People say SME normally die after two years of their operation and as CBZ Holdings we think the problem is that we are not supporting the entire value chain.
“If you see what SME produce, the value is much higher so we are saying let us work at who supplies them, how do they process, how do they market and identify the market for them so that there is good residual value for them,” said Zimunya.
He added that they want to make sure that the SME sector input side is capacitated.
“SME is facing market problems that is the reason why we are putting another $10 million dollars on top of that we gave them last year.
“We want to make sure that the input side is capacitated because when it goes to the supermarket, there is a packaging and a lot of overheads as well so we are saying how do we help from a funding perspective to make sure that they are able to get some benefits, so we are creating value for SME,” he said.
According to Zimunya, the second edition of the CBZ International Indaba has brought together 500 local, regional and international stakeholders, business leaders, national and international experts relevant to the growth of the SME sector.
