RYAN CHIGOCHE
The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe (SMEAZ) will hold SMEs Awards this month to recognise efforts made by entrepreneurs in growing their businesses, Business Times can report.
SMEAZ CEO, Farai Mutambanengwe told Business Times that the awards will be held on November 26,2021 in the capital.
“The awards are awarded on merit and they save as a form of recognition and also as a form of encouragement for everyone else so that they can upgrade.
“The awards are also on specifics for example customer service, branding, improvement in accounting and internal control systems among other things. So the awards are meant to encourage our SMEs to be better in terms of the way they do business, among other things,” Mutambanengwe said.
He said attendance at the actual ceremony will be limited to 100 guests due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The rest, Mutambanengwe said, will join virtually as the event is going to be live streamed across all social media platforms.
“The Award adjudication will be a transparent process involving the Association as well as the award sponsor. Our process of assisting members to grow their businesses entails coming up with an action plan, which members are then expected to execute over the course of the year.
“We will therefore shortlist members that would have carried out particular steps that are related to the award category, from which a winner and runners up will be chosen,” SMEAZ said.
The award sponsor, together with the association, will have the responsibility of selecting the final winner as well as the runners up. The award sponsor given the task to present their award on the day.
Categories will include compliance, record-keeping, staff welfare, product quality, internal controls, marketing and branding, self-improvement, risk management practice, among others.
To enter the awards, companies will have to pay a sum ranging from US$300 to US$500 per category.
This year’s event has got two main sponsorship categories that is the Legendary Partner category, which entitles the sponsor to overall ownership of the year’s Awards ceremony and the Diamond Sponsorship category which comes with having the year’s award rebranded to include sponsors’ organisation names.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Community and Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Sithembiso Nyoni (pictured) is expected to be among the guests, accompanied by the top hierarchy in the Ministry, specifically the SMEs department.
“This year’s Local Legends awards ceremony will indeed be legendary, as we can only improve on the last event, based on our learning experience,” Mutambanengwe said.
He said: “Award categories are likely to be snapped up quickly, therefore we would urge potential sponsors to confirm their participation sooner rather than later. As of now we are in discussions with potential sponsors.”
According to the World Bank, formal SMEs contribute up to 40% of gross domestic product in emerging economies, and this number is much higher when informal businesses are included.
A large portion of consumer spending in Zimbabwe is driven by small businesses.
Hence their growth is of paramount importance to the economy and the country at large.
The transition of SMEs to big business or corporate is pivotal in any economy in the world.
It is actually the relative measure of how well an economy is performing as SMEs are the seed-bed of business growth, innovation and pillars of employment creation.
SMEs contribute half of the world’s economic output and employ two-thirds of the global workforce.
To demonstrate the importance of the sector growth quite a number of commercial banks and retail enterprises in Zimbabwe now have a dedicated SME desk signifying the role small businesses are playing in the local market partly because only a sizable chunk of yester-year corporate giants is still standing in the country’s economy.
There is no universally accepted definition of SMEs but the World Bank defines SMEs as businesses that employ less than 300 people and have an annual turnover that does not exceed US$15m.
