THE Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises is engaging its Industry and Commerce counterpart to provide access to markets, finance and training to at least 50 medium enterprises that have been weaned to become large corporates.
BY FIDELITY MHLANGA
Small to Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni told NewsDay on the sidelines of the launch of the International Expo yesterday that her ministry looks at revenue base, turnover and number of employees for enterprises to graduate into full-blown corporates.
“For now we have over 50 [medium enterprises] who are graduating to the ministry of Industry and Commerce. We look at their revenue base; we also look at their turnover and the number of staff they have employed. It depends on the sector, for instance, in agriculture the number of staff could be up to 300, in manufacturing it could be 70, in mining it could be 100 and in ICT it could be five, so we consider each of those criterions,” she said.
Nyoni said the ministry of Industry would look into supporting the enterprises in terms of access to markets, finance and training.
“We are discussing with the ministry of Industry and we are putting together a package that the ministry of Industry will then receive them and give them mentorship to graduate into big corporates.”
“They really need to look at them in terms of what they need. Do they need training, do they need workspace, and do they need more money or more markets? What exactly do they need because for now they have been struggling on their own? So the ministry of Industry needs to open other avenues for them,” she said.
Meanwhile, the seventh edition of the SMEs International Expo will run from October 18 to 21 under the theme, Adhering to Good Corporate Governance and Standards for Global Competitiveness.
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At least 350 exhibitors, who include big corporates and syndicated organisations in various sectors of the economy, are expected this year up from 200 who were present last year
Regional participants are drawn from Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
The business conference is pencilled in for October 19, with speakers drawn from the Office of the President and Cabinet, International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Development Programme.
The business conference will seek to provide recommendations to address challenges in industry in line with corporate governance and standards.
