The SME Association of Zimbabwe is a not-for-profit body, owned by its members, who are entrepreneurs. It was formed out of the realisation that there was a gap in terms of the representation and support of professional small and medium enterprises that want to grow and become large corporations. The Association achieves its goal of SME development through providing core support services, some of which are outlined below.
The Association was formed in December 2011. It originally began as a LinkedIn group of similar-minded business people. That group now has an ever-increasing membership now in excess of 1 500 followers. Over and above that, we now have over 700 SMEs registered at our office, who appear in our business directory.
It was registered as a not-for-profit trust (Registration Number 185/2012) in February 2012, after it was felt that the needs and aspirations of SMEs would best be represented by a legitimate, recognised body. This was followed up by the securing of offices in March 2012, and the development of a stand-alone website in April 2012.
The SME Association of Zimbabwe was formed specifically to represent "small growing businesses". Small growing enterprises have been recognised worldwide as the engine that powers economic growth and employment creation. They create jobs at a much higher rate than large enterprises, and more often than not, innovation comes from these enterprises as opposed to large corporations. Prior to the formation of the SME Association, Zimbabwe did not have an association that specifically represented this "business middle class".
Our definition of small (turnover less than $240 000 or assets less than $100 000) and medium enterprises (turnover and assets above the thresholds for small enterprises, but less than $1 million each) ensures we cover the hitherto neglected areas mentioned above. The international definition of what constitutes a small or medium enterprise has much higher thresholds but in light of where Zimbabwe is coming from, the above definitions were considered appropriate. They will be revised upwards as our economy improves.
It is an established fact that SMEs contribute at least 50% of GDP in developing and developed economies. The Association therefore aims to ensure that not only do SME contribute their 50% plus to Zimbabwe's economy, but that they grow to become large enterprises, to ensure the country's economic prosperity.
The Association offers several benefits to its members, which include raising capital, creating markets (including branding your products properly), training and development and ensuring SMEs have appropriate infrastructure to operate from. It also acts as a focal point for lobbying and advocacyactivity for the SME sector. Its objectives are achieved through several sub-committees. Each sub-committee focuses on a particular aspect of SME activity, and is manned by specialist entrepreneurs in the particular field. Thus, the Association is able to achieve a broad yet specialised coverage of all areas of concern to SMEs.
In pursuance of its goals, the Association has carried out, and is currently engaged in a number of initiatives such as:
- Hosted the first ever all-stakeholder SME funding seminar that brought together participants from the pensions industry, banks, the stock exchange, venture capital, private equity and the microfinance industry.
- Hosting the value chain business linkages seminar in January 2013 to foster greater B2B linkages for companies within Zimbabwe
- Working with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to set up a secondary board to list SMEs.
- Launching the Local Legends competition, which is aimed at uplifting the standards and competitiveness of our local SMEs.
- Comprehensive training and development calendar for small and medium enterprises that is practical, and aimed at growth.