WASHen expo: Har­ness­ing in­no­va­tive so­lu­tions for pos­i­tive out­comes

Chronicle (Zimbabwe) - - Business - Oliver Kazunga Se­nior Busi­ness Re­porter Busi­ness Re­porter

BANK­ING in­sti­tu­tions have started pro­vid­ing credit test data to the Re­serve Bank of Zim­babwe (RBZ) as part of the de­ploy­ment process of the credit reg­istry, which ends at the end of the month.

Amend­ments to the Bank­ing Act pro­vide for the es­tab­lish­ment of a credit reg­istry so that all bor­row­ers are vet­ted for credit wor­thi­ness for pur­poses of man­ag­ing non-per­form­ing loans (NPLs) at ac­cept­able lev­els.

It is also hoped that the credit reg­istry sys­tem that houses an ef­fec­tive credit in­for­ma­tion data­base would limit bank fail­ures aris­ing from credit risk ex­po­sures.

In the Mid-Term Mon­e­tary Pol­icy State­ment re­cently, RBZ Gover­nor Dr John Man­gudya said a num­ber of mile­stones have been achieved so far re­gard­ing the set­ting up of credit reg­istry sys­tem.

Through the Zim­babwe As­set Man­age­ment THE 2016 Wa­ter San­i­ta­tion, Hy­giene and En­ergy (WASHen) expo be­gins in Bu­l­awayo to­mor­row with a fo­cus on har­ness­ing in­no­va­tive so­lu­tions for pos­i­tive out­comes.

WASHen, is a sec­tor-spe­cific ex­hi­bi­tion, which is in its third year-run­ning and is or­gan­ised by the Zim­babwe In­ter­na­tional Trade Fair (ZITF) Com­pany in part­ner­ship with the Nether­lands De­vel­op­ment Or­gan­i­sa­tion (SNV Zim­babwe).

En­vi­ron­ment, Wa­ter and Cli­mate Min­is­ter Op­pah Muchin­guri-Kashiri will be the guest of hon­our at the two-day event.

“The 3rd edi­tion of WASHen will see the in­tro­duc­tion of Prac­ti­tioner’s Fo­rums where pro­fes­sion­als work­ing in the hy­giene and re­new­able en­ergy sec­tors can meet for the ex­change of views, knowl­edge and in­for­ma­tion,” ZITF Com­pany mar­ket­ing and pub­lic re­la­tions man­ager Ms Stella Nkomo said.

“The fo­rums have been borne out of the re­al­i­sa­tion that just know­ing how to do the work is in­suf­fi­cient. Prac­ti­tion­ers must also have skills in mo­bil­is­ing re­sources and man­ag­ing the re­la­tion­ship with clients.”

This year’s WASHen runs un­der the theme, “In­no­va­tive So­lu­tions, Pos­i­tive Out­comes,” and will cen­tre on three the­matic ar­eas namely pub­lic-pri­vate-part­ner­ships in WASH in­fras­truc­ture de­vel­op­ment; cli­mate change, WASH and clean en­ergy; and in­for­ma­tion com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nol­ogy for de­vel­op­ment.

Ms Nkomo said on the first day, WASHen will host a prac­ti­tioner’s fo­rum on men­strual hy­giene man­age­ment.

“Ex­pected par­tic­i­pants are donor or­gan­i­sa­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tives, im­ple­ment­ing part­ners, lo­cal author­i­ties, com­mu­nity mem­bers as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Min­istries of Health and Child Care, Women Af­fairs, Gen­der and Com­mu­nity De­vel­op­ment and Ru­ral De­vel­op­ment, Preser­va­tion and Pro­mo­tion of Cul­ture and Her­itage,” she said.

The fol­low­ing day will see the host­ing of the re­new­able en­ergy fo­rum to dis­cuss op­por­tu­ni­ties for pri­vate sec­tor par­tic­i­pa­tion for mini grids in Gwanda.

“Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Gwanda Ru­ral District Coun­cil will present the avail­able op­por­tu­ni­ties while rep­re­sen­ta­tives from cen­tral gov­ern­ment and the reg­u­la­tory au­thor­ity, the Zim­babwe En­ergy Reg­u­la­tory Au­thor­ity (ZERA) will clar­ify the pol­icy is­sues,” she said.

Ms Nkomo said all was now set for the wa­ter, san­i­ta­tion, hy­giene and en­ergy con­fer­ence and sup­port­ing ex­hi­bi­tion.

“In­vited del­e­gates in­clude rep­re­sen­ta­tives from cen­tral and lo­cal gov­ern­ment, non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions, busi­ness and civic lead­ers and other in­ter­ested stake­hold­ers.

“Ex­hi­bi­tion space is also still avail­able and or­gan­i­sa­tions sup­ply­ing wa­ter, san­i­ta­tion, hy­giene and en­ergy prod­ucts and ser­vices or run­ning rel­e­vant projects are there­fore in­vited to showcase their ac­tiv­i­ties and wares to del­e­gates at the WASHen 2016 expo,” she said.

Makasa Sun Ho­tel Casino, Vic­to­ria Falls

Min­is­ter Op­pah Muchin­guri-Kashiri

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