BULAWAYO- CBZH, the country’s top bank by asset size, has officially launched the second edition of the International SME Indaba in Bulawayo today where over 500 SMEs from Zimbabwe and the region are expected to participate.

The initiative is now in its second year and is designed to promote SME engagement with various stakeholders as well amongst themselves.

This year’s edition is running under the theme “Enhancing SME growth through smart partnerships and will be conducted over the next 3 days.

The deliberate focus on SMEs is in line with the shifiting economic structure which has seen small enterprises emerge in Zimbabwe against the fading lustre of large corporates.

Unverified reports suggest that SMEs generate an equivalent of half of the country’s GDP which currently stands at $14 billion. It is also evident that the sector has been on a huge growth path since dollarization.

Despite the impressive growth, mortality rate of SMEs has been very high owing to funding constraints, lack of management know how and other value chain consideration.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Indaba CBZ Acting CE said it is this gap in funding, value chain management and business to business engagement that the bank seeks to close through the Indaba initiative and follow through responses such as direct and indirect funding of the SME.

He highlighted that CBZ initially allocated $10 million to SMEs and has since increased the amount to $40 million with further room for increasing the exposure.

Zimunya highlighted that performance of the SME book has been pleasing with repayments averaging 95 percent of the total advances. At this rate SMEs loan repayment compares more favourably to the average market and the exclusive CBZ book whose NPLs stood at 8% as at December 2017. CBZ’s loan book currently sits at $1.02 billion.

Industry guests from the region are also expected to participate through panel presentations among them an official from Safaricom’s MPESA.