Review of small business policies in party manifestos

15 Jun, 2018 - 00:06 0 Views
Review of small business policies in party manifestos

eBusiness Weekly

Kudzai M. Mubaiwa
In a little over ten weeks, Zimbabwe will hold general elections and citizens will select the presidents, members of parliament and councillors they want. There are various views on what the average voter wants and looks at in selecting the right candidate for each of these roles — in the main which political party they align with and the respective policies being put forward through a manifesto.

A manifesto, in politics, is simply a document housing promises and intentions, a written and published declaration capturing the views of an individual (possibly an independent candidate), group (such as an alliance) or a single party.

There is a school of thought that says most voters in Zimbabwe will not bother with the fine detail of manifestos, that only the elite make time to read them. With respect to the previous elections it can be argued that this is true.

Most voters are known to be those in rural areas, who may not ever have had access to such blueprints, even when they desired to read them.

Their appreciation of the manifestos are from the summaries shared at rallies and reinforced as catchy slogans on party regalia.

In this digital age however, it will be interesting to see how much of this information is disseminated using social media, which has undoubtedly disrupted the sharing of information.

Mobile penetration rate is over 100 percent in Zimbabwe and internet penetration rate just over 50 percent, and growing.

The majority of Zimbabweans access the internet through mobile devices and this is made easier by the availability of data and social media bundles — a service many are happy to pay for in election season to enable them access to the latest political news in text, image, video and audio format — all of which are enabled through the very popular WhatsApp, which accounts for at least five million users nationally, incidentally almost matching the number of registered voters in this election.

Against such a background, we are confident that this year, the contents of manifestos will be given greater attention that in the past.

Small Business Interest
Not all may read every document, or any through to the end, but certainly the information will filter to the relevant spaces.

Small business or small to medium enterprises is one such, especially so because most participants in this space are members of at least one business WhatsApp group.
These are those who have involved themselves in enterprise due to a lack of employment and of necessity started up, and of course including that were intentional and historically so inclined.

Many of them are youth and women, both important demographics, with the ability to swing votes. It would make sense to appeal to them in any manifesto.

In my reading of the three manifestos for parties or groupings fielding presidential candidates this July, namely Build Zimbabwe, MDC Alliance and ZANU-PF, I was pleased to find that all made mention of this section of society.

A desktop analysis yielded the following salient points from each party. Build Zimbabwe were bold in their assertion that the scale of economic recovery we need cannot be accomplished without resuscitating every local and provincial economy.

Their 10-point plan excludes a dedicated ministry of small business in the 15 they highlight, and our assumption is that this would be covered under the ministry of industry, science and technology or perhaps that of provincial development and local government.
They are clear that they will use a provincial business recovery approach requiring presidential attention.

They envision “a dynamic new economy from the bottom up and from the inside out by releasing the full potential of the informal sector, unleashing the creativity of indigenous innovators and empowering women”.

According to their blueprint, the Zimbabwe informal sector ranks 6th largest in Africa, and they would emphasise on access to capital and technology, support services, supply chain, lowering barriers to formalization, enabling local partnerships and exports.

D. Detailed plan
Build Zimbabwe are very detailed on the how- innovation hubs being key, housing them in already present infrastructure — tertiary institutions in the provinces, and further supporting them with a $200 million investment fund. Attention is given to youth, women and people with disabilities and their policy for SME’s made for easy reading, as it is logically arranged and extremely practical. Of the ten point plan, a full point, number five, of ten, is dedicated to this sector.

MDC houses SMEs in the context of jobs, indicating they will contribute to the 100 billion dollar economy. They highlight the usual things — the use of small business incubators, ensuring access to credit (including an innovation fund to encourage new ideas and a dedicated entrepreneurship bank), business linkages and access to work spaces.
Theirs is the only manifesto to speak to blockchain technology as a consideration for the future with several use cases highlighted. One would have wanted to see a direct linking of the benefits for small business owners. The document reads like a list with not enough of the story unpacked on how the SMEs may directly impact the 100 billion dollar economy.
In my views, ZANU-PF’s small business policy is summarized in tired, overused jargon — broad based empowerment initiatives — financial inclusion, facilities for youth and women.
Other buzzwords include formalization and involvement in tendering/procurement, value addition and industrialisation at growth points.

There is a cursory mention of ICT literacy for SMEs and informal sector, business incubation centres, start-up kits, linkages, mentorship for youth.

The document is fairly obvious in its’ inclination towards the country being open for big business, whilst small business is tucked in under youth initiatives, that are in turn treated under special interest groups.

It is interesting that each manifesto reads like the general profile of the presidential candidate’s — the BZA is a sober mix of maturity blended with exposure — well researched and presented, with a clear call to practical action that is an infusion of tested old school approaches and present day methodologies, whilst open to innovation.

Futuristic and conservative
The MDC’s is clearly very futuristic and geared to excite, throwing in jargon of new technologies like the blockchain, but however quite thin on a practical roadmap and resources for implementation.

ZANU-PF’s is an old school, conservative approach, regurgitating terms that are heard pretty much every election season.

All of them are thankfully very inward looking, and bottom up, which is what small business owners require in order to thrive in Zimbabwe.

The best way forward is to build the small blocks and these in turn will become the larger economic zones we require.

Balance will be key — an appreciation of the need to start with economic and enterprise development at the lowest level as suggested by ZANU-PF, yet not staying there but bringing blocks together (economic zones) for critical mass and productivity as purported by the BZA, and incorporating global approaches and new technologies as represented by MDC.

Put simply, the best way forward, in my view, is for the winner to use the approaches from all three in quick succession.

In conclusion, dear politicians, the small business owner in Zimbabwe requires one major thing, access — further broken down to access to detailed information, access to business and technical/digital training, access to easy formalization (registration, banking, tax), access to fairly priced finance, access to markets and access to mentors.
Business and innovation hubs will implement these well, better than government, as outlined in a recent #i4policy document) — yours is to provide an enabling environment.

Feedback: Twitter @kumub, Email [email protected]

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