‘Support SMEs grow’

LARGE manufacturing companies should support Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) with tenders to supply small implements used in the manufacturing of different products, Zambia Chamber of Small and Medium Business Associations, (ZCSMBA) chief executive officer Moto Ng’ambi has advised. Mr. Ng’ambi said the model of supporting the SME sector by established companies has been adopted in Japan and that while the motor assembly plants had manufactured the cars they contracted SMEs to supply the smaller implements required. Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, he said the SME sector was poised for growth but that this growth could only be attained if the sector received support from already established companies. “We are talking to a number of manufactures that have a raw turn of what to do and, as we engage with them we are coming up with solutions of what they intend to let go of to help empower the SME sector,” Mr. Ng’ambi said. He further said there is need to start identifying manufactures who can come up with projects that they can give the SMEs in order for them to be kept busy and provide the much needed business opportunities for the sector. Mr. Ng’ambi appealed for financial intervention for players in the SME sector to focus on increased production and formulate ideas that can help SMEs find access to market from the already established manufacturing companies. The Zambian SME has over the years been faced with the challenge of access to markets due to them failing to meet the quantity and quality required a situation that has led to about 70 percent of them falling out of business in their first year of operation.