Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) says the Chamber is working at influencing the policy direction of the country so as to ensure that it is conducive for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as larger businesses to thrive and contribute to economic growth.
ZACCI Acting Chief Executive Director Giyan Sakala said at a macro level, the Chamber is working towards mitigating the challenges faced by the business sector to ensure that SMEs play a notable role in actualising Vision 2030 aimed at transforming Zambia into a middle income nation.
Mr. Sakala explained that ZACCI has worked to empower Small and Medium Enterprises in their contribution towards economic growth, and one has been the introduction of alternative sources of finance and linking SMEs to larger institutions through match making business linkages.
At a macro level, we are looking into capacity building and identifying capacity gaps between SMEs and linking them to large scale businesses that can supply affordable and cheap machinery with value addition as the goal.
Mr. Sakala
He also added that ZACCI is pushing for the review of the 2009 SME policy so as to ensure that it is updated and made more suitable to the current challenges facing small and medium enterprises.
And the ZACCI Acting Chief Executive Director further added that ZACCI, in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Development Circles group, is yet to enforce and implement the Tertiary Education and Community Entrepreneurship Club Project.
The Tertiary Education and Community Entrepreneurship Club Project is an MoU that was signed in November 2019 aimed at forming entrepreneurship clubs in colleges, universities and trade schools both in the private and public sector.