Zimbabwe is home to the second biggest per capita informal sectors in the world according to UNDP and IMF. Over 60% of the population rely on the informal economy for survival. Therefore scholars of economics cannot avoid looking at Zimbabwe when analysing the shadow economy.
The major challenges facing small businesses include 1) Access to Markets 2) Access to Capital 3) Access to mentorship 4) Challenging Economic Environment, and 5) Other factors.
Given that this is an economy that deserves special place in the world. How has been the support to small businesses over the past years? A lot of efforts by the government, corporate sector and development partners with considerable amounts and resources poured. However given the extent of the demand—supply factors have just been a drop in the ocean.
In targeted rural communities, development partners have done commendable work in supporting livelihoods, provision of inputs (capital), trainings and market linkages. In some areas water availability has been enhanced with irrigation systems developed or resuscitated. The Government has also done exceptionally well in supporting key economic sectors such as Agriculture and Mining benefiting small holder farmers and miners.
The biggest challenge in all the interventions are urban areas.
It is easy to mobilise rural folks through use of traditional leaders and structures as communities are closely linked. However in urban set ups—this is a serious challenge.
Proposed solutions include tech hub interventions—however their reach is limited to a few hundreds or thousands per year. It is therefore difficult to derive meaningful data backed conclusions on effectiveness of such interventions. Entrepreneurs in Epworth, Makokoba, Sakubva and Mucheke may struggle to name any hub they are aware of.
Tech hubs therefore need expansion beyond the tiny few that are available as they are technically a drop in the ocean.
In our view, no one in Zimbabwe can effectively assist entrepreneurs given the scale of the need especially in urban areas where little support is reaching them. There is need for all stakeholders to form a team and these could include The Government, The Corporate Sector, Financial Institutions, The Civic Society, Universities and colleges, Urban and Rural Councils, Churches, Public Media, Telecommunication Companies and community leaders.
Zimbabwe needs a solid infrastructure for supporting small businesses and unlock value. This is the greatest missing link but innovations could be introduced to harness the existing digital infrastructure of websites and social media platforms. In Japan they have a digital ecosystem for supporting entrepreneurs. It is called Mirasapo which essentially mean supporting the future needs of entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs linked to the Mirasapo have access to capital, markets, mentorship and other resources.
And on ZBIN we adopted the model that links our website to Facebook and Whatsapp Forums. Our members benefit from access to opportunities information, access to markets and access to peer to peer mentorship. This has seen us link up 100,000 Active Members which should be one of the highest in the world for countries with high informal sectors.
We haven’t fully reached our potential but believe we are in the right direction to connect over a million entrepreneurs over the next 5 years.
Our model as well as the Japanese Mirasapo model need tweaking and create a fully home grown infrastructure that support entrepreneurs. Classroom entrepreneurship teaching has been overtaken by events as only a few are reached.
