Cart is empty By SHERRY CHABALA
THE Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) has challenged Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to demonstrate high levels of innovation in key sectors of the economy to promote economic growth.
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CTPD executive director, Isaac Mwaipopo has told Millennium TV in an interview that SMEs should package their products in way that will help to attract private financing.
He said access to finance alone is insufficient to address the challenges related to financing that have for a long time negatively affected the growth of SMEs.
“The support towards SMEs is needed and SMEs are key drivers towards contributing to job creation and poverty alleviation. Our appeal from the Centre for Trade Policy and Development is that there should be continued efforts towards working to address some of the challenges that they have faced.
“Some of the challenges are legacy challenges related to access to cheaper finance. With regards to other financing options that have been provided such as the Citizens’ Economic Empowerment Commission, we have seen that the demand with regard to access to finance has increase actually even outstripping the available resources,” Mr Mwaipopo said.
Mr. Mwaipopo added that attracting private sector financing was one way that SMEs could access sustainable financing.
He said the SME sector was growing at a fast rate, which required cooperation between Government and the private sector to explore ways of addressing the challenges affecting SMEs for a better economy.
“Beyond that, it is also important for our SMEs to demonstrate the innovations and to ultimately put out some of their products in a manner that would equally attract private finance because Government alone might not even be in a position to provide all the much-needed resources but if we activate private sector private finance, it might be a more sustainable way of ensuring that resources are provided and ultimately used for their intended purpose,” Mr Mwaipopo said.
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