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<\/a><\/p>\n14 December 2011<\/p>\n
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Vice President Joice Mujuru has urged Small to Medium Enterprises to form a co-operatives’ bank to evade tringent lending conditions from commercial banks.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a two-day training workshop of co-operators led by the Kenyan Co-operative Movement in Harare yesterday, VP Mujuru said the bank will also minimise dependency on foreign owned capital.<\/p>\n
She said the bank would also bury the scourge of moving around with a begging bowl in the international corridors of power.<\/p>\n
“One of the greatest challenges co-operatives in Zimbabwe face is lack of capital. It is only by the formation of savings and credit co-operatives that we can mop up that little excess liquidity among our people at the bottom of our economic pyramid. And when these little pools of savings are gathered into a Co-operative Bank, we have a huge reservoir indeed.”<\/p>\n
VP Mujuru said co-operatives and SMEs played an important role in turning around the country’s economic fortunes.<\/p>\n
She urged small entrepreneurs to learn more from their Kenyan counterparts who lead the best co-operatives in Africa. VP Mujuru said the world economy was facing numerous challenges that required a new business model catering for the needs of ordinary people.<\/p>\n
In Zimbabwe, the VP said, Government had initiated a broad-based economic empowerment programme through indigenisation.<\/p>\n
She said the indigenisation programme was people oriented and it helps to deal with rampant unemployment problems that lead to uprisings like what happened in North Africa.<\/p>\n
“Events in Western countries such as the Occupy Wall Street campaign clearly point to the need for a new economic order,” she said.<\/p>\n
Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni said the Co-operatives Bank and a Co-operatives College should be in place by March next year.<\/p>\n
“We want Government to help us on three big projects that we are working on. Firstly, we want to have a Co-operatives Bank that should be completed before March next year,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Secondly, we want to have an SME College and we also want Government to help us to unite our co-operators for them to where they come from.”<\/p>\n
Minister Nyoni said the Western model of doing business was dying and it was important for local business people to start pursuing other avenues of doing business.<\/p>\n
She said Western countries were failing to manage their economies and as such they could not be the best business partners. The Kenyan Co-operative Movement is in the country on a five-day exchange visit to share experiences with their Zimbabwean counterparts.<\/p>\n
Kenyan Assistant Minister of Co-operative Development and Marketing Linah Jebii Kilimo is leading the five-member delegation from Kenya.<\/p>\n
The workshop was attended by more than 300 co-operators from various sectors of the economy.<\/p>\n
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