Historical Overview of Small and Medium Enterprise Policies in Zimbabwe

An overview of the historical development of Small and Medium Enterprises in Zimbabwe

“…The study adopted critical literature review synthesizing various literature related to the historical development of SMEs in Zimbabwe. Various authors (Waweru, 2010;Kamal, 2015;Templier & Paré, 2008;Ovunda, 2015) have adopted critical literature analysis methodology in their studies and explicitly, Bomani and Derera (2015) used the method in their study on SME policies in Zimbabwe. The study iteratively followed the six generic steps that were suggested by Templier and Paré (2015); have a clearly formulated objective, searching the extant literature, screening for inclusion, assessing the quality of primary studies, extracting data, and data analysis.…”

“…However, after the country attained its independence status in 1980 the state of affairs changed drastically. Between 1980 and 1990 the government wholesomely controlled the country's economy through restrictions and controls on foreign trade, foreign exchange, prices and wages (Bomani & Derera, 2015). In 1990, Bretton Woods sponsored the Zimbabwean government to adopt an Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) (Chinembiri, 2011).…”

“…Lack of collateral among SMEs, high-interest rates and inadequate financial support from the government to ZDB and SEDCO, however suppressed and crippled the anticipated SME growth (Manyani, 2014). Due to non-performing loans and limited funding from the government the ZDB failed to perform, it was transmuted in 2005 into Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) (Bomani & Derera, 2015). The main thrust for IDBZ was to provide financial support, technical assistance, lease equipment and infrastructural development for SMEs (Goz, 2015).…”

“…After the economic recession, the IDBZ focused more on developing infrastructure such as houses and large entity offices at the expense of supporting SMEs (Chenga, 2015). On the other hand, in 2007, SEDCO received funds from the government to support SMEs but regrettably the funds where defalcated and after the adoption of the multi-currency regime, the institution received paltry funding from the state, and as a result, SMEs experienced financial challenges in Zimbabwe (Bomani & Derera, 2015).…”

Re-engineering the Growth and Sustainability of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Agrarian Sector in Zimbabwe

“…This reflects an intense need by government to assist SMEs to grow by fostering a stable and an enabling environment so as to develop agriculture as a means to attain food security. Various authorities strongly agreed that government policies are being implemented to transform informal SMEs into formal businesses whlst at the same time growing those formal SMEs into transnational companies (Bomani, Fields &Derera. (2015).For this reason, reengineering process is critical to grow SMEs into transnational companies.…”