The role played by ZIM-ASSET in entrepreneurship development

ZIM ASSET is an abbreviation for Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic

Transformation and it is a document which was crafted by the government of the Republic of
Zimbabwe towards rejuvenating the countrys economy through creation of employment ,
Food Security and Nutrition; Social Services and Poverty Eradication ;Infrastructure and
Utilities ,value addition and beneficiation by the end of the year 2018 .The Mission of
document is : To provide an enabling environment forsustainable economic empowerment
and social transformation tothe people of Zimbabwe.This mission will be accomplished by
the exploitation of the countrys abundant human and natural resources.ZimAsset is a cluster
based Plan, reflecting the strong need to fully exploit the internal relationships and linkages
that exist between the various aspects of the economy. These clusters are as follows:

Food Security and Nutrition;

Social Services and Poverty Eradication;

Infrastructure and Utilities; and

Value Addition and Beneficiation

If the ZimAsset is to be implemented successfully, it is going to promote entrepreneurship

development in the country. The following are some of the roles of the ZimAsset to the
success of entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Creation and growing opportunities for businesses

This is a necessary move to resuscitate the dying Smes and create an opportunity for
entrepreneurship in an injuredeconomy. Creation of opportunities means more people coming
into business and also the creation of favourable conditions for starting up new businesses
.This could be in the form of reduction of taxes, removal of some trade barriers and cutting
short the process of company registration.

Recapitalizationof SEDCO to finance development

Recapitalization of Small EnterpriseDevelopment Corporation would make it easier for

entrepreneurs to access funding which they can use for their day to day operations.
Entrepreneurs would get loan access at lower costs and they will no longer have to search for
funding from banks who usually demands for collateral security which SMEs will not have.

Increased investment in infrastructure

Increased investment in infrastructure helps entrepreneurs in the sense that if energy and
power are developed Smes can perform to their full capacity without power cuts. If roads are
maintained then they can be able to access their target markets .Accessibility is also a
challenge since most roads have potholes thus not making it easy for SMEs to establish
themselves in potential markets.

Continued use of multicurrency to consolidate macroeconomic stabilization

The use of the multicurrency helps to consolidate macroeconomic stabilization thereby

creating a favourable operating environment free from escalating interest rates and
hyperinflation which allows businesses to trade at a profit and without fears of changing
economic situations.

Improved liquidity

Increase in the availability of funds makes business better and makes it easy for small
businesses to survive since the money is in circulation customers are able to purchase
necessary goods and services benefiting the SMEs as they will remain in business unlike
when there is a liquidity crunch most goods and services are forgone due to financial
constraints.

Look east policy to unlock the flow of potential investment

The look east policy can unlock the flow of potential investment which might help the SMEs
grow into large corporations with the funding and development skills from the east.

On the other hand despite its positive contribution to the success of Entrepreneurship in
Zimbabwe, the Zim Asset also poses limitations to entrepreneurship development in
Zimbabwe. There are various ways the Zim Asset as the economic blue print has restricted
and bound the development of Entrepreneurship in the Zimbabwe.

It limits foreign direct investment

The ZimAsset limits the success of the SMEs in the country since it limits Foreign Direct
Investment [FDI] inflow. The document starts with a misplaced view that sanctions slapped
on Zimbabwe over a decade ago yet the Government wants to access loans from the IMF and
the World Bank. These financial institutions will not be able to help because there are in the
country attributed to the existence of sanctions thereby limiting FDI.

The document sounds like its more of a political partys document

As coated in the executive summary it is written that After the landslide victory by the
ZANU PF Party in the 31st July 2013 harmonised elections, the Party was given the mandate
to govern the country for a five (5) year term.This economic blue print was developed
through a consultativeprocess involving political leadership in the ruling ZANU PF
Party,Government, Private Sector and other stakeholders.
This may have a negative impact since people in the country have different political views
those who belong to a certain political parties may feel that the document is for these people
hence they isolate themselves from participating or they may be isolated .

It does not address the factors which hinders entrepreneurship development in

the country

The ZimAsset poses limitations to the success of SMEs in that does not really address the real
factors that hinder entrepreneurship development. In Zimbabwe many SMEs are unregistered
and the ZimAsset does not outline anything on this account. It does not talk of providing
SMEs with loans without interests in order to increase their success. In short the document
does not take into account the real factors that influence the success of Small businesses that
is the availability of capital, training facilities.

Current situation in Zimbabwe

Financial situation

In the ZIMASSET document they stated that funding is going to from BRICS, Brazil,
Russia, India, China, South Africa and last month we witnessed the visit of our Russia
counterparts to sign agreements that they will assist in Zimbabwe infrastructural
 development. However the funding is not enough to achieve the stated objectives in the
ZimAsset.

Sedco current position

In the 2014 government financial budget the ministry of SME and corporative development
was allocated 10% of what they actual needed hence it led to the reduction of finance of
SEDCO lending facility. This means that SEDCO will not have enough money to
entrepreneurs. A severe and persistent liquidity crunch which has made it very difficult for
local productive sectors to access sufficient credit to oil the wheels of our economy.

The existence of infrastructural bottlenecks

Infrastructure bottlenecks especially around key economic enablers such as energy, transport,
communication. These bottlenecks have eroded of viability and competitiveness of local
producers in key economic sectors .This have resulted in low industrial capacity utilization,
heightened by widespread company closures, deterioration in the external sector position, and
rising formal unemployment. In this year alone about 100 of the industrial firms in Bulawayo
have collapsed due to lack funds and decrease in demand for locally produced goods hence
what was stated in the document is being implemented.
Unethical behaviour

Unethical behaviour of the people in high level offices such as tender committee members for
instances, they recently awarded a rural hospital construction tender to a retail company and
as we speak the hospital has not been built whilst the money was paid out to the so
calledcompany. In addition the continued practises of invading taxes and duties by business
have led to the failure of the policies to reduce imports by increase duty tariffs.

The existence of many different political parties may lead to failure of the policy as
the members of parliament share different views there will be no unity of purpose.

In conclusion, it can be noted that the ZimAsset is as economic blue print which was built to
enable Zimbabwe to achieve economic growth through empowering SME and exploitation of
the countrys resources but at the moment it has failed to a greater extend due to issues we
have highlight in before. The ZimAsset if implemented successfully and if all people
participate towards achieving the goals of this document this will promote entrepreneurship
in Zimbabwe.