The Sunday Mail
Business Reporter
FBC Holdings has set aside over US$20 million for loans to SMEs in a bid to develop the sector, a top official at the financial institution has said.
The bank introduced SME banking in 2013 to cater for a sector estimated to contribute over 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s GDP and employing 60 percent of the working population.
FBC Holdings brand manager (group marketing) Mr Roy Nyakunuwa told The Sunday Mail Business that the bank funding would be for agriculture, mining and healthcare among other areas.
“The available funding for SMEs is in excess of US$20 million.
“The bank also teams up with specialist financiers in the agricultural value chain such as Create Fund and other agro-based SME-oriented financiers. “The bank is pursuing a similar strategy in the mining and healthcare segments of the economy,” said Mr Nyakunuwa. Mr Nyakunuwa said FBC had opened SMEs banking units in Harare and Bulawayo in recognition of SMEs being “the frontier for economic growth going forward”.
While the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe estimates that there could be US$2,5 billion circulating in the informal sector, a FinScope survey conducted by the Ministry of SMEs and Co-operatives Development in conjunction with FinMark Trust and the World Bank in 2012 concluded that turnover there was more than US$7,4 billion.
Government and private investors are increasingly focusing on SMEs as high growth zones, with the State – through economic blueprint Zim-Asset – emphasising the need to penetrate unbanked and underbanked markets.
