Story by Fairstars Mukungurutse
THE government has pledged to improve the business operating environment to attract investment and scale up entrepreneurship.
Against a backdrop of challenges facing emerging female entrepreneurs, including bureaucracy, access to finance and collateral, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has pledged to foster an environment that attracts foreign direct investment and supports entrepreneurship.
He was speaking on the side sidelines of the Atlantic Council Women’s Prosperity Conference in Harare this Wednesday.
“As a government, we are aware that our processes can be bureaucratic; accessing certain licenses can take time and even be costly. We have put in place a team to look into the cost of doing business in terms of licensing. As a government, we want to continue improving the environment for doing business. We already have a women’s bank, and we continue to allocate capital to support that bank, but we want to do more.
“For example, they are working on a prescribed asset status so that they can partner with other investors such as insurance companies and various pension funds. We are also working on government guarantee to guarantee loans to a certain level loans that are borrowed from women’s banks; the idea is to remove the requirement for collateral because collateral is one of the issues that push women out of that borrowing market,” he said.
Commending the government for its sound economic empowerment policies, the European Union Ambassador to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Jobst van Kirchnann, pledged support for the country’s foreign direct investment agenda.
“Women empowerment is something in which Zimbabwe has invested a lot, and we, as the European Union, stand ready to support that. As the EU, together with member states, we are making available 200 million euros to help gender equality and women empowerment a reality. In attracting foreign direct investment, I believe this country has huge potential and opportunities.
“In April 2025 we will bring from the 27 member states companies here and looking for investment in Zimbabwe. We need to work together. We do our part as the EU to bring investment, and the government does their part to make Zimbabwe as attractive as it is and to make entrepreneurs see it as a country full of opportunities,” said Kirchmann.
WestProp Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ken Sharpe acknowledged that women are reshaping the local business environment.
“I believe women are already the backbone of the economy because if we look at the statistics 70 per cent of SMEs are women this means the greatest growth you can have in an economy normally comes from the SME sector this means the women of Zimbabwe can provide a platform for the greatest growth of the economy,” he noted.
The conference comes at a time when Zimbabwe is ranked 5th out of 46 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa on women’s economic freedom.
