Call for SMEs insurance

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO

Zimbabwe’s insurance companies should come up with schemes for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that protect their businesses, the Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) has said.

The call came after some informal traders in Bulawayo’s Mpopoma high density suburb recently lost their property worth thousands of US dollars when their goods caught fire.

According to the Bulawayo Fire Brigade preliminary investigations, the fire that gutted the Mpopoma Outspan factory was caused by carelessly discarded lit material.

The factory, also known as eSprampekini, burnt down on Wednesday morning last week, rendering over 700 people jobless.

BVTA executive director, Michael Ndiweni said insurance schemes should be tailor made for SMEs.

“This is a call to the insurers to ensure that there are insurance schemes that are tailor made to cover all businesses. As an organisation we have been talking about the need to ensure that there is an insurance mechanism that covers all businesses, “Ndiweni said.

He added: “(The problem is) the insurances in place today only covers the big companies but small businesses do not. People lose goods in times like these. It’s an urgent call to make sure that providers put in place schemes for SMEs.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Sithembiso Nyoni on Monday this week visited eSpamperekini.

Nyoni said most SME centres were white elephants because responsible authorities plan for them without them giving input.

“This kind of crowding of SMEs that are doing such quality work is unacceptable and last year we had an all-stakeholders meeting which agreed to decongest such places. I am happy that we have engaged the local authority to provide the land.

“In a lot of cases, SME centres are white elephants because we plan for them without them giving us input. They are the ones that use them and they know what they want, “she said.

She added: “What we need is cooperation from local authorities and our funders so that by the end of this year, SMEs should be working in comfortable places.”