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(TIMES) Conclude small, medium enterprises policy... and promote growth, Comesa tells State

Conclude small, medium enterprises policy... and promote growth, Comesa tells State
By Business Reporter

The Government has been urged to quickly finalise the policy on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to regulate and promote growth in the sector.

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) MSME toolkit chief executive officer and regional project coordinator, Edwin Zulu, said the lack of policy had remained a big challenge for the sector.

Mr Zulu said the approval of the MSMEs policy would help to address various challenges which entrepreneurs were currently facing such as difficulties to access funding.

Speaking in an interview in Lusaka, Mr Zulu said it was time the policy was enacted in order to regulate and strengthen growth of the industry.

“The MSME draft policy has been undergoing scrutiny for quite some time, hence, our call for the Government to quickly approve it,” Mr Zulu said.

He, however, commended the Governmen,t through the Zambia Development Agency, for the interest shown in attracting investment opportunities for SMEs in the country.

Mr Zulu also said the International Finance Corporation had indicated its willingness to support the SMEs toolkit project in the first and second quarter of this year.

The SMEs toolkit is aimed at addressing three main impediments facing SMEs in emerging markets namely, limited access to finance and market information, business management skills and access to locally applicable business tools and computer applications.

Labels: COMESA, SMEs

posted by MrK @ 11:14 PM